OUGHT 


AMEEICAN    SLAVERY 


TO  BE  PERPETUATED? 


flrhh 


BETWEEN 


REY.  W.  G.  BROWN10W  AND  REY.  A.  PRYNE. 


HELD  AT  PHILADELPniA,  SEPTEMBER,  1858. 


,  ,  ,         ,       •>      . 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  AUTHORS 

BY    J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT    &    CO., 

PHILADELPHIA. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT    &    CO., 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


PREFACE. 


As  a  book  must  not  go  out  without  a  PREFACE,  the 
undersigned  herewith  introduce  the  correspondence 
between  them,  which  gave  rise  to  the  debate  in  which 
they  have  been  engaged,  and  which  is  substantially 
contained  in  the  following  pages. 

In  presenting  the  following  work  to  the  American 
public,  no  apologies  are  offered.  We  live  under  a 
Government  which  tolerates  liberty  of  thought,  liberty 
of  speech,  and  freedom  of  the  press ;  and  in  this  ex 
pression  of  our  honest  views  and  feelings  —  differing 
widely  as  we  do  —  upon  the  subject  of  Domestic 
Slavery  in  the  United  States  —  a  subject  relating  to 
the  general  welfare  of  the  country,  we  are  but  ex 
ercising  a  right  which  belongs  to  every  American 
citizen.  The  age  of  proscription  for  opinion's  sake,  is 
past,  and,  as  we  trust,  never  again  to  return.  The 
liberal  genius  of  our  free  institutions,  allows  to  all  un 
restricted  interchange  of  thought  and  sentiment; 
while  men's  opinions  are  received  or  rejected,  accord 
ing  as  they  possess  merit  or  demerit. 

(iii) 

390188 


IV  PREFACE. 

For  the  imperfections  of  this  volume,  the  under 
signed  offer  no  apology.  The  Lectures  of  each  were 
prepared  for  the  occasion,  under  the  pressure  of  other 
important,  and  frequently  distracting  avocations.  We 
both  claim  to  have  spoken  honestly,  and  with  a  sincere 
desire  to  do  good.  One  of  us  a  Southern  man,  the 
other  a  Northern  man — both  prejudiced,  as  we  frankly 
admit,  at  least  to  some  extent,  in  our  educations,  habits, 
and  associations,  in  favor  of  the  institutions,  and  usages 
of  the  respective  section  of  the  country  we  hail  from — 
the  reader  will  appreciate  our  principles  and  opinions, 
as  he  may  deem  them  entitled  to  favor. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 
ABRAM  PRYNE. 
PHILADELPHIA,  Sept.  14, 1858. 


PRELIMINARY  CORRESPONDENCE. 


[From  the  Knoxville  Whig.] 

OUR  DISCUSSION  IN  SEPTEMBER. 

THE  reader  will  see  from  the  following  correspondence,  that 
the  battle  spoken  of  in  many  of  the  newspapers,  comes  off  on 
Tuesday,  the  seventh  of  September,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
between  the  Editor  of  this  paper  and  Rev.  Abram  Pryne,  a  Con 
gregational  minister,  and  the  Editor  of  an  anti-slavery  paper, 
published  in  McGrawville,  Courtland  county,  New  York,  styled 
the  "  Central  Reformer."  The  following  challenge  appears  in 
his  Reformer  for  March  10,  1858. 


REV.  MR.  BROWNLOW  AND   SLAVERY. 

The  public  will  remember  that  this  gentleman  has  challenged 
the  friends  of  freedom  in  the  North  to  debate  with  him  the 
merits  or  demerits  of  slavery.  His  very  elaborate  challenge  has 
not  been  accepted,  unless  it  be  a  conditional  acceptance,  from 
Frederick  Douglas.  I  now  propose  to  reduce  the  question  to  a 
single  proposition,  sweeping  the  entire  area  of  the  subject,  and 
\n  that  form  I  challenge  him  to  its  discussion.  The  proposition 
I  would  state  as  follows :  — 

"  Ought  American  Slavery  to  be  abolished  ?" 

This  question  to  be  reversed  when  the  debate  is  half  through, 
and  to  be  stated  as  follows:  — 

"  Ought  American  Slavery  to  be  perpetuated  ?" 

1*  (5) 


6  CORR.S-SPONDENCE. 

He  may  solect  the  time  and  place  of  holding  the  debate.  I 
only  stipulating  that  it  shall  be  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
that  I  shall  have  four  weeks'  notice  between  his  acceptance  of  my 
challenge  and  the  commencement  of  the  debate. 

As  my  name  may  not  have  reached  him,  I  may  state  that  like 
Mr.  Brownlow  I  am  a  clergyman,  and  an  editor,  and  will  take 
the  liberty  to  refer  him  to  Hon.  Gerritt  Smith,  Hon.  J.  R.  Gid- 
dings,  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins,  President  of  Williams  College,  and 
Rev.  L.  G.  Calkins,  President  of  New  York  Central  College. 

ABRAM  PRYNE. 
MC&RAWVILLE,  NEW  YORK. 


CENTRAL  REFORM  OFFICE,  > 

MCGRAWVILLE,  New  York,  April  14,  1858.  J 

Dear  Sir  —  I  sent  you  some  time  since  a  challenge  to  debate 
the  question  of  the  rightfulness  of  American  Slavery  with  me. 
I  have  not  heard  from  you  —  I  write  to  express  the  hope  that 
after  your  blustering  announcement  that  you  would  meet  the 
entire  North  on  this  question,  you  will  not  back  out  from  the 
first  debate  offered  you.  Yours,  &c.,  A.  PRYNE. 


MORRISTOWN,  TENN.,  April  20,  1858. 
REY.  ABRAM  PRYNE  — 

Sir  —  In  your  issue  of  an  abolition  paper,  of  the  10th  ult., 
styled  the  "  Central  Reformer,"  and  of  which  you  seem  to  be 
the  ostensible  editor,  you  challenge  me  to  meet  you  in  debate  on 
the  slavery  question.  You  say  you  are  "  a  clergyman  and  an 
editor,"  and  for  your  character,  you  refer  me  to  several  distin 
guished  abolitionists. 

There  are  two  points  of  information  I  wish  from  you,  before 
I  respond  to  your  challenge.  First,  what  church  are  you  con 
nected  with  ?  Next,  are  you  a  white  man,  or  a  gentleman  of 
color?  Respectfully,  &c.,  W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 

Editor  of  Knoxville  Whig. 


CORRESPONDENCE.  7 

MORRISTOWN,  TENN.,  April  20,  185S, 
HON.  J.  R.  GIDDINGS  — 

A  clergyman  at  McGrawville,  Courtland  county,  who  edits  an 
abolition  paper,  styled  the  "  Central  Reformer,"  proposes  a  dis 
cussion  with  me  on  the  subject  of  Slavery,  and  refers  me  to  you, 
and  others,  for  his  character.  His  name  is  Abrain  Pryne.  Is 
he  a  gentleman,  in  good  standing  in  his  church  ?  What  church 
is  he  connected  with  ?  Is  he  a  white  man,  or  a  man  of  color? 
Your  early  reply  will  oblige, 

Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


HALL  OP  REP.,  TJ.  S.,  April  24,  1858. 

Dear  Sir — I  have  heard  Abram  Pryne  preach  several  times, 
I  understand  him  to  be  a  preacher  in  good  standing  with  the 
Congregational  Church  —  at  least  I  never  heard  aught  against 
him,  as  a  Christian,  a  gentleman,  a  scholar.  Very  respectfully, 

J.  R.  GIDDINGS. 
W.  G.  BROWNLOW,  Esq. 


KNOXVILLE,  April  26,  1858. 

Rev.  Mr.  Pryne  —  Your  letter  of  the  14th  inst.  is  before  me, 
and  I  hasten  to  reply.  My  failing  to  answer  your  "challenge" 
of  March  10th,  as  set  forth  in  the  "  Central  Reformer,"  an  Abo 
lition  paper,  of  which  you  seem  to  be  the  ostensible  editor,  has 
induced  you  to  believe  that  I  have  "  backed  out,"  after  my 
"  blustering  announcement"  that  I  was  willing  to  meet  the  entire 
North. 

I  was  in  New  Orleans  when  your  characteristic,  not  to  say 
"blustering,"  challenge  came  to  hand,  and  upon  my  return,  I 
started  east  of  here,  taking  my  exchange  papers  with  me;  and 
BO  soon  as  I  opened  your  paper,  and  discovered  your  "  chal 
lenge,"  I  addressed  you  from  Morristown,  in  this  State,  and 
also  your  friend,  Hon.  Joshua  R.  Giddings.  That  letter  I  have 
no  doubt  has  reached  you  before  this  time,  and  if  so,  has  given 
you  to  understand  that  I  am  not  going  to  "  back  out,"  as  you  no 
doubt  desire  me  to  do  ! 

I  think  you  have  been  a  little  too  hasty  in  attributing  cowardice 
to  me  in  this  matter.  I  was  one  thousand  miles  distant,  in  the 


8  CORRESPONDENCE. 

sunny  South,  when  your  "challenge"  came  here  to  my  address, 
on  a  tour  of  observation  among  the  negroes,  and  sugar  and  cot 
ton  plantations  of  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  Ala 
bama,  and  I  answered  you  with  promptness,  so  soon  as  I  re 
turned  and  flashed  my  eye  upon  your  very  fair,  liberal,  and  one 
sided  "  challenge,"  prescribing  the  terms  and  place  of  our  dis 
cussion  ! 

In  my  letter  to  you,  of  the  20th  inst,  I  requested  to  know,  as 
a  preliminary  step  towards  engaging  with  you  in  "mortal  com 
bat,"  whether  you  were  a  white  man  or  a  gentleman  of  color. 
I  must  still  know  this  fact,  and  I  hope  you  will  impart  the  infor 
mation  to  me.  My  reason  for  desiring  this  information  is,  that 
I  have  heretofore  understood  there  is  an  Abolition  College  in 
McGrawville,  and  that  an  educated  negro  is  at  its  head.  I 
thought  it  likely  that  you  might  be  that  man,  and  if  so,  it  is  due 
to  me  that  I  know  the  fact. 

To  be  candid  with  you — and  I  deal  so  with  all  men — the  same 
mail  bringing  me  your  insolent  letter,  also  brings  one  from  Mr. 
Giddings  ;  and  while  he  stated  that  you  are  a  minister  in  good 
standing  in  the  Congregational  Church,  he  is  silent  as  to  your 
color,  the  only  question  I  propounded  to  him  with  emphasis. 
This  silence  on  his  part  has  increased  my  suspicions  as  to  your 
color. 

Hoping  to  hear  from  you  soon,  I  am, 

Very  respectfully, 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 


MCGRAWVILLE,  N.  Y.,  April  28. 
REV.  "W.  G.  BROWNLOW  — 

Sir — I  have  your  note  of  April  20th,  and  hasten  to  reply. 
The  churches  with  which  I  act,  are  known  as  Union  Churches. 
They  are  Independent  Congregational  in  organization  and 
government,  and  Evangelical  in  doctrine  and  practice.  They 
differ  from  Congregationalism  as  to  total  independency,  and  on 
the  subject  of  Christian  union  only.  But  of  course  you  do  not 
deem  this  point  important,  for  in  your  first  challenge  you  call 
out  Theodore  Parker  by  name,  and  you  are  not  likely  to  meet  a 
greater  heretic  than  he  in  all  the  North  ! 


CORRESPONDENCE.  9 

Your  second  inquiry  I  can  answer,  by  stating  that  my  father 
is  a  Hollander  by  descent,  and  my  mother's  father  was  a  Scotch 
man,  and  though  not  a  very  white  man,  there  is  not  a  drop  of 
negro  blood  in  my  veins. 

I  shall  hope  to  hear  from  you  again  by  return  mail. 

Yours,  &c.,  ABRAM  PRYNE. 


McGRAWYiLLE,  N.  T.,  May  6th,  1858. 
REV.  MR.  BROWNLOW  — 

Sir — Your  letter  of  the  26th  came  this  morning.  You  have, 
probably,  received  my  last  before  this,  and  are  satisfied  as  to 
my  color  ;  your  excuse  for  not  replying  sooner  to  my  challenge, 
is  satisfactory,  and  I  withdraw  any  intimation  contained  in  my 
letter  as  to  your  "  backing  out."  Your  hint  that  I  desire  you 
to  "  back  out,"  I  shall  answer  in  deeds  rather  than  words. 

You  may  select  the  place  anywhere  in  the  North,  or  North 
west,  from  Augusta,  Maine,  to  Chicago,  as  you  please. 

Let  me  suggest  one  or  two  incidental  questions  :  — 

1.  Shall  the  debate  be  published? 

2.  Shall  admission  be  free  or  otherwise.     A  fee  at  the  door  to 
pay  expenses  is  common  at  the  North. 

Yours  in  hope  of  a  speedy  and  definite  reply, 

A.  PRYNE. 


KNOXVILLE,  May  15th,  1858. 

Rev.  Abram  Pryne— Your  letters  of  April  28th,  and  May  6th, 
are  both  before  me.  My  delay  in  answering  is  because  of  my 
absence  from  home  again,  in  attendance  at  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church,  South,  still  in  ses 
sion  at  Nashville. 

Your  statements  as  to  your  Church  relations  and  color,  are 
perfectly  satisfactory,  and  you  may  prepare  to  meet  me  ;  but  you 
will  have  to  wait  on  me  for  a  short  time  on  account  of  engage 
ments  I  must  comply  with.  This  will  only  give  you  the  more 
time  for  preparation ;  and  you  will  please  not  accuse  me  of 
egotism  when  I  advise  you  to  be  fully  ready,  as  I  purpose  to 
give  you  battle  after  a  style  you  have  not  been  accustomed  to  — 


10  CORRESPONDENCE. 

not  intending  to  be  outdone  by  you,  however,  in  courtesy  and 
fairness. 

1.  I  will   claim  the   right   of    meeting  you   on   Mason  and 
Dixon's  Line,  say  in  the  great  Free  Soil  city  of  Philadelphia, 
which  will  give  me  twice  the  distance  to  travel  that  you  will 
have.     Pennsylvania  is  a  Northern  State  —  Philadelphia  can- 
accommodate  us  with  a  suitable  Hall  —  and  I  presume  you  can 
not  object  to  the  place. 

2.  As  I  do  not  go  into  this  fight  as  the  representative  of  any 
Church  o-r  political  organization,  South,  but  upon  my  own  hook, 
as  a  Southern  man,  and  the  advocate  of  Southern  institutions,  I 
will  not  be  limited  to  any  particular  form  of  discussion,  but  will 
claim  the  right  to  discuss  the  whole  Slavery  question,  contrast 
ing  the  morality  and  integrity  of  Northern  men,  with  the  morals 
and  integrity  of  those  of  the  South. 

3.  I  am  willing  to  open  the  debate,  and  give  you  the  conclud 
ing  speech,  but  I  will  protract  it  until  I  announce  to  you  and  the 
audience,  that  I  am  through.     I  will  not  be  limited  to  any  time 
under  an  hour,  in  each  of  my  speeches,  allowing  you  the  same 
time  that  I  occupy  in  reply ;  and  when,  in  some  instances,  I 
chance  to  exceed  one  hour,  it  shall  not  be  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  thirty  minutes,  say,  in  all,  one  hour  and  a-half. 

4.  While  I  am  speaking,  I  will  deny  the  right  of  interrupting 
me,  but  will  concede  to  you  the  right  to  correct  any  and  every 
thing  I  may  say.     On  the  other  hand,  while  you  are  speaking, 
I  will  not  interrupt  you,  nor  tolerate  it  in  any  friend  of  mine,  or 
of  the  South. 

5.  I  will  not  suffer  any  other  person  to  participate  in  the 
debate,  but  I  will  concede  to  you  the  privilege  of  surrounding 
yourself  with  all  the  anti-Slavery  leaders  at  the  North,  and  with 
counselling  them,  and  being  prompted  by  them  at  intervals ; 
and  when  we  are  through,  if  any  one  of  them  shall  think  you 
have  not  done  me  or  the  South  justice,  I  will  renew  the  contest 
with  him. 

6.  As  it  regards  publishing  the  debates,  I  propose  to  print  in 
a  book,  all  that  I  say,  and  just  as  I  say  it.     I  suggest  that  the 
•whole  be  published  under  one  cover. 

7.  As  it  regards  "  a  fee  at  the  doors,"  I  would  prefer  that  it 
be  "  a  free  fight ;"  but  if  we  are  required  to  pay  hall  rent,  and 


CORRESPONDENCE.  11 

other  incidental,  but  necessary  expenses,  we  shall  have  to  re 
quire  the  doors  to  be  closed,  and  sell  tickets  of  admission.  I  am 
too  poor  myself,  to  be  at  any  other  expenses  than  my  tavern 
bills  and  travelling  expenses.  But  this  we  will  agree  upon 
when  we  meet,  which  must  be  a  few  days  in  advance  of  the 
discussion. 

Hoping  you  will  accept  the  fair  and  liberal  terms  laid  down, 
and  respond  without  delay,  I  will,  upon  receipt  of  your  reply, 
publish  the  intended  debate,  and  the  time  at  which  it  is  to  come 
off.  Your  obedient  servant,  W,  G.  BROWNLOW. 

Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 


McGRAwviLLE,  June  1st,  1858. 
REV.  "W.  G.  BROWNLOW — 

I  have  your  letter  of  May  15th,  and  hasten  to  reply.  One  or 
two  paragraphs  of  your  letter  need  explanation ;  you  say  you 
"  will  not  be  limited  to  any  particular  form  of  discussion."  Am 
I  to  infer  from  this,  that  you  now  decline  debating  the  question 
which  I  challenged  you  to  debate;  namely,  whether  American, 
slavery  ought  to  be  abolished  or  perpetuated  ?  Or  am  I  to  under 
stand  this  paragraph  to  mean,  that  under  that  question,  you 
simply  ask  a  wide  range  of  debate  ?  If  the  latter  is  all  you 
mean,  still  agreeing  that  the  question  shall  stand  as  I  first  pro 
posed,  I  have  no  fault  to  find. 

2.  As  to  the  length  of  time  the  debate  shall  continue,  I  have 
nothing  to  say. 

3.  I  should  much  prefer  that  the  length  of  the  speeches  should 
be  agreed  upon  on  the  start  —  and  not  varied  from. 

4.  I  agree  to  your  proposition  as  to  interruptions. 

5.  I  will  not  consent  that  any  other  person  shall  take  part  in 
the  debate  on  either  side. 

6.  As  to  publishing,  I  propose  that  each  of  us  employ  a  ver 
batim  reporter  —  arid  each  revise  his  own   speeches  after  the 
reporter  has  written  them  out  —  and  that  the  book  be  published, 
stereotyped,  and  each  edition  be  equally  divided  between  us, 
each  paying  half  the  expense. 

7.  I  am  equally  obliged,  with  yourself,  to  make  the  debate 


1.2  CORRESPONDENCE. 

pay  its  expenses  —  and  think  a  fee  at  the  door  will  secure  as 
large  an  audience  as  any  room  will  hold. 

I  should  prefer  going  to  New  York,  but  will  not  object  to 
going  to  Philadelphia. 

If  then,  I  understand  right,  that  you  accept  my  challenge,  and 
that  the  question  shall  be  stated  —  "  Ought  American  Slavery 
to  be  perpetuated,"  or  "  Ought  American  Slavery  to  be 
abolished,"  with  the  added  agreement  that  the  debate  shall  give 
you  the  widest  latitude,  to  discuss  all  phases  of  the  slavery  ques 
tion —  with  this  understanding,  I  say,  you  may  give  notice  of 
the  debate.  But  there  must  be  a  well  defined  question,  under 
which  I  agree  to  give  you  the  widest  latitude. 

Your  notice  as  to  where  the  debate  shall  take  place,  must 
reach  me  four  weeks  before  the  time  appointed. 

Please  answer  immediately. 

My  reply  has  been  delayed  a  few  days  by  my  absence  in 
Ohio.  Yours,  &c.,  A.  PRYNE. 


%.  .  KNOXVILLE,  June  10,  1858. 

Rev.  A.  Pryne  —  Your  letter  of  the  1st  inst,  post-marked  same 
date,  came  to  hand  to-day,  nine  days  out,  and  I  reply  by  the 
first  mail  going  east. 

I  mean  in  my  letter  to  you,  of  the  15th  ult.,  that  under  tlie 
question  you  proposed,  "  Ought  American  slavery  to  be  perpetu 
ated?"  I  shall  claim  a  wide  range  in  the  debate.  In  other 
words,  I  mean  that  I  will  go  into  an  investigation  of  the  WHOLE 
SUBJECT  OF  SLAVERY,  contrasting  the  consistency  and  morality 
of  the  North,  with  that  of  the  South.  I  mean,  further,  that  in 
my  speeches,  /will  be  the  judge  of  what  is  to  the  point,  and  will 
not  be  ruled  out  of  order,  or  off  of  the  subject,  by  any  moderators, 
or  judges  of  the  debate.  As  we  are  both  preachers,  I  will  use  a 
figure  that  we  fully  understand :  You  may  select  any  Text  you 
please,  but  in  my  sermons  upon  that  text,  I  will  preach  what  seems 
to  me  to  be  gospel.  If  I  say  nothing  to  the  purpose,  and  dodge  the 
issues,  it  will  be  to  your  advantage,  both  before  the  audience, 
and  in  the  published  debates ;  for  I  will  see  that  my  speeches 
appear  in  the  book  just  as  I  deliver  them,  and  I  hope  you  will  do 
the  same. 


CORRESPONDENCE.  13 

If  the  proprietors  of  the  largest  Hall  in  Philadelphia,  will  re 
quire  pay  from  us,  for  its  use,  &c.,  as  they  doubtless  will,  we  of 
course  must  charge  an  entrance  fee,  or  for  a  season  ticket.  1 
am  a  poor  man,  and  not  able  to  pay  out  several  hundred  dollars 
for  Hall  rent,  for  a  week,  to  accommodate  others.  I  have  served 
the  public  all  my  lifetime,  and  have  never  turned  my  attention 
to  the  business  of  making  money. 

As  I  suppose  we  now  understand  each  other  fully,  write  me 
that  all  is  right,  and  I  will  announce  the  time,  giving  you  as 
long  a  notice  in  advance  as  you  desire, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 


McGRAWYiLLE,  N.  T..  June  18. 
RET.  W.  G.  BROWT*LOW  : 

Dear  Sir :  —  I  have  your  letter  in  reply  to  my  last.  It  is  quite 
satisfactory  on  the  point  of  my  inquiry,  and  you  may  give  notice 
of  the  debate,  according  to  our  understanding. 

I  have  said  but  little  to  you  about  my  course  of  argument.  I  now 
desire  to  say,  that  with  me,  the  debate  is  quite  other  than  a  con 
test  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Union.  I  shall  by  no  means 
undertake  to  defend  the  North,  or  condemn  the  South,  in  all 
things.  It  is  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  not  the  South,  upon 
which  I  make  war.  I  look  upon  the  course  of  many  Northern 
men,  both  in  politics  and  religion,  with  shame  and  scorn,  and 
shall  only  defend  what  is  right  in  the  North.  —  But  of  course  I 
accord  to  you  the  right  to  discuss  side  issues  as  much  as  you 
please,  reserving  to  myself  the  right  to  reply  or  not  as  I  may 
think  best. 

I  represent  no  party  in  politics  or  religion,  and  am  alone  re 
sponsible  for  my  views.  As  to  expenses,  I  presume  that  I  am 
far  less  able  to  bear  them  than  yourself.  A  fee  at  the  door  ia 
quite  proper,  and  if  more  than  enough  to  pay  expenses  can  be 
thus  raised,  it  will  be  right  and  just,  and  no  drawback  in  a 
Northern  audience.  I  think  we  need  feel  no  delicacy  about  that 
matter.  As  to  the  time,  I  have  only  this  to  say,  that  my  health 
is  not  robust,  and  I  am  about  going  to  a  Water  Cure  for  two  or 
three  weeks.  But  if  I  have  four  weeks  after  your  final  notice,  it 
will  be  enough. 

2 


14  CORRESPONDENCE. 

I  must  not  debate  all  day,  every  day. — Afternoons  and  even 
ings  will  be  all  that  I  can  do,  leaving  us  the  mornings  for  rest. 
You  will  have  the  advantage  of  me  in  physical  strength,  to  say 
nothing  of  your  superior  mental  abilities. 

One  thing  about  the  Hall.  It  must  be  open  to  all,  of  every 
grade  and  color  who  buy  tickets.  You  will  see  at  once,  that  I 
cannot  consent  to  any  restrictions  here.  This  must  be  stated  in 
our  contract  for  a  Hall. 

You  will  be  quite  as  free  from  any  prejudice  from  a  Philadel 
phia  audience  as  myself.  Every  Northern  audience  will  hear 
you  with  entire  respect,  and  no  effort  of  mine  shall  be  wanting 
in  that  direction.  My  sense  of  honor  would  prompt  this  course. 

I  should  prefer  30  minutes  as  the  general  length  of  speeches 
because  I  think  it  would  suit  the  audience  better.  But  I  will 
not  contend  for  this. 

Of  course,  if  we  can  mutually  agree  when  the  debate  shall 
close,  that  would  be  well,  but  if  not  each  one  must  quit  when  he 
thinks  best. 

I  suppose  that  it  would  not  be  best  to  permit  the  entire  debate 
to  be  reported  for  the  press,  for  that  would  injure  the  sale  of  our 
book.  But  upon  that  we  can  consult. 

Write  me  freely  anything  that  strikes  you. 

Kespectfully  yours, 

A.  PRYNE. 


KNOXVILLE,  July  8th,  1858. 

Rev.  A.  Pry ne  —  Returning  from  the  counties  below  me,  I 
hasten  to  yours  of  the  18th  ult.  You  say  your  purpose  is,  in  our 
forthcoming  debate,  not  to  make  war  upon  the  South,  but  upon 
"  the  institution  of  slavery."  We  are  unable  in  the  South,  to 
distinguish  between  a  war  upon  the  South,  and  this  institution. 
However,  as  our  general  arrangements  have  been  agreed  upon, 
you  and  I  must  make  these  fine-spun  distinctions,  when  we  come 
to  measure  arms  in  debate. 

The  debate  must  be  carried  on  in  day  time,  and  I  purpose  to 
make  only  one  speech  each  day.  As  to  the  length,  I  cannot  be 
limited,  as  heretofore  agreed  upon,  but  it  shall  be  of  reasonable 
length.  I  am  willing  that  it  be  in  the  after  part  of  the  day. 


CORRESPONDENCE.  15 

As  to  the  time  of  dosing,  I  can  only  say,  I  will  wind  up,  when 
in  my  own  judgment,  I  have  covered  the  whole  ground.  As  to 
reporting  our  debate  for  the  newspapers,  we  can't  prevent  that 
if  we  would.  But  we  must  first  secure  the  copyright,  and  pre 
vent  any  other  publication  than  newspaper  reports. 

The  debate  will  open  on  Tuesday,  the  seventh  of  September, 
and  I  hope  we  may  able  to  conclude  the  same  week. 
Very  respectfully,  &c. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


AMERICAN  HOUSE,  Sept.  3d,  1858. 

Rev.  A.  Pry ne.  —  I  arrived  in  this  city  this  afternoon,  and 
learned  you  were  here.  By  speaking  both  too  long  and  too  loud, 
and  by  over-heating  myself  in  a  controversy  during  the  last 
summer,  I  have  brought  upon  myself  bronchitis,  rendering  it 
impossible  for  me  to  speak,  or  even  converse,  without  an  effort 
somewhat  painful.  I  have  resorted  to  cupping,  to  the  external 
use  of  Croton  Oil,  and  other  remedies,  prescribed  by  physicians, 
and  thus  far  all  to  no  purpose.  "With  the  exception  of  this 
almost  incurable  hoarseness,  I  am  well.  I  come  here  to  let  you 
know  of  my  condition,  and  to  suggest,  and  even  ask  a  postpone 
ment  of  our  discussion  of  the  Slavery  question.  I  regret  the 
disappointment  as  much  as  any  one  living ;  and  I  will  add,  that 
it  is  the  first  time  in  thirty  years  I  have  been  without  a  strong 
and  powerful  voice. 

But  if  you  think  we  must  have  it  over,  now  that  we  are  here, 
I  am  willing  to  go  into  it,  and  employ  some  competent  man  to 
read  for  me,  as  great  as  the  disadvantages  will  be  to  me.  I  look 
more  to  the  result  of  the  publication  of  our  speeches,  in  the  same 
volume,  than  to  any  momentary  effect  upon  a  Philadelphia 
audience.  In  other  words,  I  am  willing  to  stand  or  fall  by  the 
matter  of  my  speeches,  as,  from  first  to  last,  they  shall  cover  the 
whole  ground,  concluding  each  speech  with  such  replies  to  your 
remarks,  as  I  may  deem  necessary. 

Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


16  CORRESPONDENCE 

PHILADELPHIA,  Sept.  3d. 

Ret).  W.  G.  Brownlow.  —  I  have  this  moment  received  your 
note  and  hasten  to  reply.  I  deeply  regret  your  loss  of  voice,  but 
as  we  have  both  travelled  far  to  meet  in  this  debate,  and  as  pub 
lic  expectation  will  be  sadly  disappointed  if  it  fail,  I  readily 
accept  your  very  honorable  proposition  to  employ  a  second  per 
son  to  read  jour  speeches,  and  am  ready  to  do  all  in  my  power 
to  accommodate  myself  to  your  misfortune.  Permit  me  to  ex 
press  the  hope  that  you  will  be  able  to  produce  a  reader  who 
will  do  justice  to  your  speeches  in  the  rendering. 
Very  respectfully,  yours,  &c., 

ABRAM  PRYNE. 


SLAVERY  DISCUSSION. 

"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 


AFFIRMATIVE,  I. — BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

RESPECTED  AUDITORS  :  Before  I  enter  on  the  dis 
cussion  of  this  important  question,  and  various  other 
kindred  topics  connected  with,  and  growing  out  of  this 
question,  I  wish  to  apprise  this  audience  of  what  they 
will  have  discovered  before  I  take  my  seat  —  namely, 
that  in  my  public  addresses,  no  matter  what  my  topics 
may  be,  I  do  not  present  my  themes  with  an  eloquence 
that  charms,  with  that  critical  acumen  that  fascinates, 
or  with  that  richness  of  diction  that  captivates  an 
audience.  This  I  regret,  as  there  is  no  power  like 
that  of  oratory.  Caesar  controlled  men  by  exciting 
their  fears ;  Cicero  by  captivating  their  affections  and 
swaying  their  passions.  The  influence  of  the  one 
perished  with  its  author ;  that  of  the  other  continues  to 
this  day,  and  will  continue  with  public  speakers  to  the 
end  of  time. 

Believing  that  I  address  an  appreciative  audience, 

who   are   here   to   learn   facts   in  reference   to    "  the 

peculiar  institution,"  and  the   great   question  of  the 

Nineteenth  Century,  I  shall  look  more  to  what  I  say, 

2*  (17) 


18  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

than  to  my  manner  of  saying  it  —  more,  if  you  please, 
to  the  subject  matter  of  my  speeches,  during  this  dis 
cussion,  than  to  any  exhibition  of  rare  powers  of 
analysis,  wit,  satire,  or  remarkable  force  and  beauty 
of  language.  I  deem  this  the  more  important,  at  least 
on  my  part,  since  this  whole  discussion  is  to  go  out  to 
the  world  in  the  same  bound  volume,  and  be  read  by 
thousands,  even  after  my  reverend  competitor  and  I 
shall  "  cease  at  once  to  walk  and  live."* 

In  advocating  the  affirmative  of  this  question,  it  is 
not  meant  that  I  am  to  be  restricted  to  the  narrow 
limits  that  technically  accurate  terms  would  fix,  de 
fining  the  limits  of  the  debate.  I  may  be  allowed  to 
remark,  that  in  the  correspondence  which  brought 
about  this  discussion,  and  which  has  been  read  in  your 
hearing,  I  resisted  the  efforts  of  the  gentleman  —  if 
indeed  .he  intended  such  a  thing  —  to  tie  up  the  dis- 
cussl^n  ]UL limiting  me  to  his  text,  by  the  strict  rules 
of  sermonizing. 

Not  only  will  I  throughout  this  discussion  openly 
and  boldly  take  the  ground  that  Slavery  as  it  exists 
in  America.,  ought  to  be  perpetuated,  but  that  slavery 
I  is  an  established  and  inevitable  condition  to  human 
society.  I  will  maintain  the  ground  that  God  always 
intended  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  to  exist ;  that 
Christ  and  the  early  teachers  of  Christianity,  found 
slavery  differing  in  no  material  respect  from  American 
slavery,  incorporated  into  every  department  of  society  ; 
that  in  the  adoption  of  rules  for  the  government  of 
society,  and  of  the  church,  they  provided  for  the  rights 
of  owners,  and  the  wants  of  slaves;  that  slavery 
having  existed  ever  since  the  first  organization  of 


BY    W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  19 

society,  it  will  exist  to  the  end  of  time.  And  in  the 
•wide  range  I  propose  to  take  in  this  debate,  I  shall 
defend  the  South,  and  make  war  upon  the  abolitionism 
of  the  North —  covering,  if  you  please,  the  whole 
ground  of  difference  between  the  two  sections. 

Whoever,  then,  reflects  upon  the  nature  of  man, 
will  find  him  to  be  almost  entirely  the  creature  of 
circumstances ;  his  habits  and  sentiments  are,  in  a 
great  measure,  the  growth  of  adventitious  circumstances 
and  causes  —  hence  the  endless  variety  and  condition 
of  our  species.  That  race  of  men  in  our  country, 
known  as  abolitionists,  free  soilers,  or  as  black  re 
publicans,  look  upon  any  deviation  from  the  constant 
round  in  which  they  have  been  spinning  out  the  con 
tentious  thread  of  their  existence,  as  a  departure  from 
nature's  great  system ;  and  from  a  known  principle  of 
our  nature,  the  first  impulse  of  these  unmitigated 
fanatics  is  to  condemn. 

It  is  thus  that  a  man  born  and  reared  in  a  free  state, 
looks  upon  slavery  as  unnatural  and  horrible,  and  in 
violation  of  every  law  of  justice  and  humanity  !  And 
it  is  not  unusual  to  hear  bigots  of  this  character,  in 
their  churches  at  the  North,  imploring  the  Divine  wrath 
to  let  fall  the  consuming  fires  of  heaven  upon  that 
great  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  of  the  New  World  —  all 
that  vast  extent  of  territory,  south  of  Mason  and  Dix- 
on's  Line,  where  this  horrible  practice  is  known  to 
prevail !  I  hope  my  worthy  competitor,  who  will 
follow  me  in  this  discussion,  has  never  been  steeped  to 
the  nose  and  chin  in  unwarrantable  prejudices  against 
the  South. 

When  an  unprejudiced  and  candid  mind  examines 


20  AFFIRMATIVE,   I. 

into  the  past  history  of  our  race,  and  learns  the  fact 
which  history  develops,  as  the  honest  enquirer  will, 
that  a  majority  of  mankind  were  slaves,  he  will  be 
driven  to  the  conclusion  I  have  long  since  reached ; 
namely,  that  the  world,  when  first  peopled  by  God 
himself,  was  not  a  world  of  freemen,  but  of  SLAVES  — 
the  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  as  usually 
construed,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Slavery  was  really  established  and  sanctioned  by 
Divine  authority,  among  even  God's  chosen  people  — 
the  favored  children  of  Israel.  Abraham,  the  founder 
of  this  interesting  nation,  and  the  chosen  servant  of 
the  Most  High,  was  the  lawful  owner,  at  one  time,  of 
more  slaves  than  any  cotton-planter  in  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  or  Mississippi ;  or  any  tobacco  or 
sugar  planter  in  Virginia  or  Louisiana.  This  may 
strike  you  as  a  bold  assertion,  at  first  glance ;  but  my 
competitor,  who  is  familiar  with  the  Scriptures,  will 
regret,  that  there  is  more  truth  than  poetry  in  the  de 
claration. 

That  magnificent  shrine,  the  gorgeous  temple  of 
Solomon,  commenced  and  completed  under  the  pious 
promptings  of  religion  and  ancient  free-masonry,  was 
reared  alone  by  the  hands  of  slaves !  Involuntary 
servitude,  reduced  to  a  science,  existed  in  ancient 
Assyria  and  Babylon.  Egypt's  venerable  and  enduring 
pyramids  were  all  reared  by  the  hands  of  slaves,  and 
black  negroes  at  that !  The  ten  tribes  of  Israel  were 
carried  oif  to  Assyria  by  Shalmanezar,  and  the  two 
strong  tribes  of  Judah  were  subsequently  carried  in 
triumph  by  Nebuchadnezzar  to  end  their  days  in  Baby 
lon  as  slaves,  and  to  labor  to  adorn  the  city.  Ancient 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  21 

Phoenicia  and  Carthage,  were  literally  overrun  with 
slavery;  the  slave  population  outnumbering  the  free 
and  the  owners  of  slaves,  nearly  three  to  one !  The 
Greeks  and  Trojans,  at  the  siege  of  Troy,  were  attended 
with  equal  numbers  of  their  slaves,  to  themselves. 
Athens,  and  Sparta,  and  Thebes  —  indeed,  the  whole 
Grecian  and  Koman  worlds  —  had  more  slaves  than 
freemen.  And  in  those  ages  which  succeeded  the  ex 
tinction  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  West,  slaves, 
abject  and  degraded  slaves,  were  the  most  numerous 
class.  Even  in  the  days  of  civilization  and  Christian 
light,  which  revolutionized  governments,  laboring  serfs 
and  abject  slaves  were  distributed  throughout  Eastern 
Europe,  and  Western  Asia  —  showing  that  slavery 
existed  throughout  these  boundless  regions.  In  China, 
the  worst  forms  of  slavery  have  existed  since  the  earli 
est  history  of  the  "  Celestial  Empire."  And  when  we 
turn  to  Africa,  we  find  slavery,  in  all  its  most  revolting 
forms,  existing  throughout  its  whole  extent,  the  slaves 
outnumbering  the  free-men  three  to  one !  Looking 
then,  to  the  whole  world,  I  may  with  confidence  assert, 
as  I  do  to-day  in  your  midst,  that  slavery  in  its  worst 
forms,  subdues  by  far  the  largest  portion  of  the  human 
race. 

Now,  my  respected  auditors,  the  inquiry  is,  how  has 
slavery  thus  risen  and  spread  over  our  whole  earth  ? 
I  answer  —  by  the  laws  of  war  —  the  state  of  property 
—  the  feebleness  of  governments  —  the  thirst  for  bar 
gain  and  sale  —  the  increase  of  crime  —  and  last,  but 
not  least,  by  and  with  the  consent,  knowledge,  and 
approbation  of  Almighty  G-od  !  Slavery,  then,  is  an 
established  and  inevitable  condition  to  human  society. 


22  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

I  do  not  speak  of  the  name,  but  the  fact.  But  the 
Abolition  philanthropists  of  the  United  States  care 
nothing  for  facts.  They  deal  in  terms  and  fictions. 
It  is  not  the  institution  of  American  slavery,  but  the 
word  "  slavery"  which  shocks  their  tender  sensibilities, 
and  their  fruitful  imaginations  associate  it  with  "  hydras 
and  chimeras  dire." 

In  "that  sacred  book  from  Heaven  bestowed," 
usually  called  the  Bible,  this  call  is  made  upon  slaves, 
or  servants,  as  you  may  choose  to  regard  them : 

"  Let  as  many  servants  as  are  under  the  yoke  count  their 
own  masters  worthy  of  all  honor,  that  the  name  of  Grod  and 
his  doctrine  be  not  blasphemed." —  1  Tim.  vi :  1. 

The  Scriptures,  for  the  most  part,  were  written  in 
the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages,  and  I  flatter  myself 
that  my  worthy  competitor  is  familiar  with  these  lan 
guages.  If  so,  he  knows  that  the  word  here  rendered 
servants  means  SLAVES  converted  to  the  Christian  faith  ; 
and  the  word  yoke  signifies  the  state  of  slavery,  in 
which  Christ  and  the  Apostles  found  the  world  involved, 
when  the  Christian  Church  was  first  organized. 

O 

By  the  word  rendered  masters,  we  are  to  understand 
the  heathen  masters  of  those  christianized  slaves. 
Even  these,  in  such  circumstances,  and  under  such 
domination,  are  commanded  to  treat  their  masters  with 
all  honor  and  respect,  that  the  name  of  God,  by  which 
they  were  called,  and  the  doctrine  of  God,  to  wit: 
Christianity,  which  they  had  professed,  might  not  be 
blasphemed  —  might  not  be  evil  spoken  of  in  conse 
quence  of  their  improper  conduct.  Civil  rights  are 
never  abolished  by  any  communication  from  God's 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  23 

Spirit ;  and  those  fiery  bigots  at  the  North,  who  propose 
to  abolish  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the 
South,  are  not  following  the  dictates  of  God's  spirit  or 
law.  And  if  the  Rev.  gentleman  who  is  to  follow  me 
in  this  debate,  will  allow  me  to  instruct  him  in  political 
economy,  and  Christian  theology,  I  will  here  distinctly 
announce  to  him,  that  the  civil  state  in  which  a  man 
was  before  his  conversion,  is  not  altered  by  that  con 
version  ;  nor  does  the  grace  of  God  absolve  him  from 
any  claims  which  the  State,  his  neighbor,  or  lawful 
owner  may  have  had  on  him.  All  these  outward  things 
continue  unaltered ;  hence,  if  a  man  be  under  the 
sentence  of  death  for  a  capital  offence,  and  God  see  fit 
to  convert  him,  which  is  sometimes  the  case,  he  is  not 
released  from  suffering  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  ! 
The  Church  of  Christ,  when  originally  constituted, 
claimed  no  right,  as  an  ecclesiastical  organization,  to 
interfere  with  the  civil  government,  as  the  united 
Churches  of  New  England  are  now  doing.  This  was 
the  principle  upon  which  the  Church  was  founded,  as 
distinctly  announced  by  its  immortal  Head.  When 
Christ  was  doomed  by  a  cruel  Roman  law  to  its  most 
ignominious  condemnation,  he  did  not  so  much  as 
resist  it,  because  it  was  law,  nor  did  he  complain  of  it 
as  oppressive.  I  hope  my  reverend  adversary  will  bear 
this  in  mind  ! 

"Then  Pilate  entered  into  the  judgment-hall  again,  and 
called  Jesus,  and  said  unto  him,  Art  thou  the  King  of  the 
Jews  ?  .  .  .  Jesus  answered,  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world;  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then  would  my 
servants  fight,  that  I  should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews ; 
but  now  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence.  .  .  .  To  this 
end  was  I  born,  and  for  this  causo  came  I  into  the  world, 
that  I  should  bear  witness  to  the  truth." — John  xviii.  33-37. 


24  AFFIRMATIVE,     I. 

Sir  (turning  to  Mr.  Pryne),  when  Christ  came  into 
the  world  on  the  business  of  His  mission,  He  found 
the  Jewish  people  subject  to  the  Roman  kingdom;  and 
in  no  instance  did  he  counsel  the  Jews  to  rebellion,  or 
incite  them  to  throw  of  the  Roman  yoke,  as  do  the 
vagabond  philanthropists  of  the  Free  States  of  this 
Confederacy,  in  reference  to  the  existing  laws  of  the 
United  States,  in  reference  to  slavery.  Christ  was  by 
'lineal  descent  "TiiE  KING  OF  THE  JEWS,"  but  he  did 
not  assert  his  temporal  power ;  so  far  from  it,  he 
actually  refused  to  be  crowned  in  that  right. 

Under  the  Roman  law,  human  liberty  was  held  by 
no  more  certain  tenure  than  the  whim  of  the  sovereign 
power,  protected  by  no  definite  constitution  whatever. 
Slavery  constituted  the  most  powerful  and  essential 
element  of  the  government ;  and  that  slavery  was  of 
the  most  cruel  character,  and  gave  the  masters  abso 
lute  discretion  over  the  lives  of  the  slaves. 

This  is  not  the  case  in  any  Slave  State  in  this  Union, 
and  never  can  be.  On  the  contrary,  laws  exist  in  all 
the  Southern  States  punishing  cruel  treatment  of  slaves, 
as  other  misdemeanors ;  and  in  some  of  our  States,  my 
own  beloved  Tennessee  among  the  rest,  owners  of 
slaves  are  liable  to  an  indictment  before  a  grand  jury, 
for  failing  to  clothe  them  decently.  And  for  the  mur 
der  of  a  slave,  unless  it  be  done  in  self-defence,  mas 
ters  and  overseers  have  been  frequently  executed. 
This  was  done,  but  a  few  years  since,  in  South  Caro 
lina  ! 

But  to  return  to  the  argument.  Notwithstanding 
all  this,  under  the  Roman  laws,  Christ  did  not  make 
war  upon  the  existing  government,  nor  did  He  denounce 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  25 

the  rulers  for  conferring  such  powers ;  though  He  looked 
upon  cruel  legislation  in  the  light  in  which  the  charac 
ter  of  His  mission  required.  And  although  the  Church 
itself  was  not  what  it  should  have  been,  in  no  instance 
did  Christ  denounce  that.  The  only  denunciations  the 
Saviour  ever  uttered,  were  those  against  the  doctors 
and  lawyers,  the  ministers  and  expounders  of  the  Jew 
ish  code  of  ecclesiastical  law.  For  this  he  was  cruci 
fied.  And  the  Jewish  anti-slavery  gamblers,  who  put 
him  to  death,  divided  out  his  garments,  as  you  recol 
lect,  casting  lots  for  them.  And  from  that  day  to  this, 
whenever  you  meet  with  one  of  these  Abolition  Jews, 
he  is  engaged  in  the  clothing  business,  either  retailing 
or  wholesaling  "ready-made  clothing." 

But  allow  me  to  present  the  case  of  the  inspired 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  as  proof  more  palpable  and 
overwhelming,  on  this  very  point.  He  had  been 
falsely  accused,  cruelly  imprisoned,  and  unjustly  ar 
raigned  ;  and  that,  too,  before  a  licentious  governor,  a 
tyrannical  and  dissipated  ruler,  and  an  unprincipled 
infidel.  The  Roman  law  in  force  at  the  time  arrested 
the  freedom  of  speech,  denied  the  rights  of  conscience, 
and  even  forbade  the  free  expression  of  opinion  in  all 
matters  conflicting  with  the  provisions  of  the  laws  of 
the  Roman  government.  In  his  defence  before  Felix, 
Paul  never  so  much  as  speaks  of  Roman  latv,  though 
well  versed  in  it;  but  "he  reasoned  of  righteousness, 
and  temperance,  and  the  judgment  to  come."  Here 
was  a  suitable  occasion  to  condemn  the  regulations, 
and  to  question  the  authority,  of  the  villanous  statutes 
of  Rome ;  but,  instead  of  this,  Paul  plead  his  rights 
under  the  unjust  regulations  of  the  law.  He  charged 
3 


26  AFFIRMATIVE,     I. 

Felix  with  official  delinquency,  "with  personal  crime, 
and,  as  a  man,  he  held  him  up  to  public  scorn,  and 
threatened  him  with  the  vengeance  of  a  justly  offended 
God !  He  appealed  to  the  law,  and  justified  himself 
by  the  law.  He  claimed  the  rights  of  a  "Roman  citi 
zen" —  demanded  the  protection  due  to  a  Roman  citi 
zen  —  and  he  scorned  to  find  fault  with  the  law,  cruel 
and  unjust  as  he  knew  it  to  be.  And  the  consequence 
was,  that  the  licentious  infidel  who  ruled,  "trembled" 
in  his  presence. 

The  views  I  have  here  submitted,  are  not  at  all  new, 
but  have  been  uniformly  acted  upon  by  evangelical 
Christians  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  Since  the  days 
of  St.  Paul  and  Simon  Peter,  no  reformer  has  appeared 
who  was  more  violent  than  that  great  and  good  man, 
MARTIN  LUTHER.  JOHN  CALVIN  possessed  a  revolu 
tionary  spirit ;  he  fought  everything  he  believed  to  be 
wrong ;  he  was  unmitigated  in  his  severity.  Yet  nei 
ther  of  these  great  and  justly  distinguished  men  ever 
made  war  upon  the  existing  laws  of  their  respective 
countries. 

JOHN  WESLEY  was  the  great  reformer  of  the  past 
century :  he  reformed  the  whole  machinery  of  the 
modern  Church  of  Christ ;  and  his  doctrines  and  man 
ner  of  conducting  revivals  are  now  leading  elements 
of  American  Christianity.  But  Mr.  Wesley  never 
made  war  upon  the  English  government,  under  which 
he  lived  and  died.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  matter 
of  serious  complaint  among  sectarians  not  friendly  to 
the  spread  of  Methodism,  that  Mr.  Wesley  wrote  ela 
borately  against  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Mr.  Wes 
ley  believed  it  to  be  religiously  his  duty  to  sustain  the 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  27 

government  under  the  reign  of  George  III. ;  and  had 
I  been  placed  in  his  circumstances,  I  should  most  un 
questionably  have  imitated  his  pious  example.  And 
although  devoted  to  law  and  order,  and  opposed  to  all 
resistance  to  existing  laws,  Mr.  Wesley's  letter  to  LORD 
NORTH,  as  British  Premier,  and  a  similar  one  to  the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth,  as  Secretary  of  these  Colonies, 
dated  June  15,  1773,  but  recently  brought  to  light  by 
GEORGE  SMITH,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Great 
Britain,  show  that  Mr.  Wesley  did  not  entertain  towards 
the  American  colonies  the  hostilities  that  have  been 
attributed  to  him.  In  those  letters  he  condemns  the 
policy  of  Grreat  Britain  towards  the  American  colonies, 
and  predicted  just  what  came  to  pass — actually  sympa 
thizing  with  the  Colonies  ! 

JOHN  WESLEY,  in  his  troubles  at  Savannah,  Georgia 
—  like  Paul  before  the  licentious  governor,  appealed  to 
the  law,  and  sought  by  every  means  in  his  power  to  be 
tried  under  the  law,  asking  only  the  privilege  of  being 
heard  in  his  own  defence !  And  as  a  propagator  of 
gospel  truth,  he  thus  adhered  to  existing  laws,  "  that 
the  name  of  Grod  and  his  doctrine  be  not  blasphemed." 

One  word  more  as  to  Mr.  Wesley :  He  is  quoted  by 
Abolition  Methodists  at  the  North,  against  the  Metho 
dists  of  the  South.  And  for  aught  I  know  to  the  con 
trary,  the  Reverend  gentleman  who  debates  with  me 
here,  may  be  intending  to  confront  me  with  some  quo 
tation  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Wesley.  What  Mr.  Wesley 
has  said  upon  this  subject,  relates  chiefly  to  the  African 
slave  trade,  an  iniquitous  traffic  I  shall  by  no  means 
attempt  to  justify.  But  it  is  a  matter  of  record,  that 
when  Mr.  Wesley  returned  from  Savannah  to  England, 


28  AFFIRMATIVE,     I. 

after  a  residence  of  two  years  in  Georgia,  in  his  Report 
to  the  London  Board  of  Missions  who  sent  him  out  lie 
advised  the  purchase  of  more  negroes  for  the  use  of  the 
American  Missions  —  saying  that  a  small  experiment 
in  that  way  had  worked  well  —  that  while  they  were 
adapted  to  the  climate,  and  their  labor  proved  valuable, 
the  Missionaries  could  be  serviceable  to  them  in  a 
spiritual  point  of  view  !  Am  I  asked  for  my  authority 
for  making  this  statement,  I  refer  to  the  Report  of 
Mr.  Wesley  to  the  Board,  after  his  return  to  London? 
which  was  in  1739.  I  also  refer  to  the  minutes  of  the 
Board,  before  whom  he  appeared  in  person,  and  where 
a  record  is  made  of  this  fact ! 

The  essential  principles  of  the  great  Moral  Law  de 
livered  to  Moses  by  God  himself,  are  set  forth  in  what 
is  called  the  Tenth  Commandment,  and  will  be  found 
in  the  20th  chapter  of  the  book  of  Exodus : 

"Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house,  thou  shalt 
not  covet  thy  neighbor's  wife,  nor  his  man-servant,  nor  his 
maid-servant,  nor  his  ox  nor  his  ass,  nor  any  thing  that  is 
thy  neighbor's." 

The  only  true  interpretation  of  this  portion  of  the 
word  of  God  is,  that  the  species  of  |5roperty  herein  men 
tioned,  are  lawful,  and  that  all  men  are  forbid  to  disturb 
others  in  the  lawful  enjoyment  of  their  property.  "  Man 
servants  and  maid-servants,"  are  distinctly  consecrated 
as  property,  and  guaranteed  to  man  for  his  exclusive 
benefit — proof  that  slavery  was  ordained  by  God  himself. 
I  have  seen  learned  dissertations  from  the  pens  of  Anti- 
slavery  men — and  I  expect  to  hear  one  equally  learned, 
before  this  discussion  closes — setting  forth  that  the  term 
"servant"  and  not  "  slave"  is  used  here.  To  this  I  reply, 


BYW.    G.BROWNLOW.  29 

once  for  all,  that  botli  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  words 
translated  "  servant"  mean  "  slave'  also,  and  are  more 
frequently  used  in  this  sense  than  in  the  former.  Beside, 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  teach  us,  that  God  especially 
authorized  his  peculiar  people  to  purchase  "  BOND-MEN" 
FOR  EVER"  ;  and  if  to  be  in  bondage  for  ever,  does  not 
constitute  slavery  as  perpetual  as  American  slavery,  I 
yield  the  point  to  the  gentleman  who  proposes  to  abolish 
the  latter ! 

The  visionary  notions  of  piety  and  philanthropy  en 
tertained  by  many  men  at  the  North,  lead  them  to 
resist  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  this  government,  and 
even  to  violate  the  tenth  Commandment,  by  stealing 
our  ''men-servants  and  maid-servants"  and  running 
them  into  what  they  call  free  territory,  upon  their 
"under-ground  railroads!"  Nay,  the  villanous  piety 
of  some  has  led  them  to  contribute  Sharp's  rifles  and 
Holy  Bibles,  to  send  the  uncircumcised  Philistines  of 
our  New  England  States,  into  "  bleeding  Kansas,"  to 
shoot  down  the  Christian  owners  of  slaves,  and  then  to 
perform  religious  ceremonies  over  their  dead  bodies  ! 
Clergymen  lay  aside  'their  Bibles  at  the  North,  and 
apply  forty  parson  power  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  to  induce  him  to  reverse  his  decrees  in  reference 
to  Kansas  matters  !  Even  females,  as  in  the  case  of 
that  model  beauty,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  unsex  them 
selves,  to  aid  in  carrying  on  this  horrid  and  slanderous 
warfare  against  the  slaveholders  of  the  South  !  English 
travellers,  steeped  to  their  very  eyebrows  in  prejudices 
against  this  government,  and  our  domestic  and  political 
institutions,  have  written  books  upon  this  subject,  and 
our  Northern  neighbors  have  circulated  them.  The 
3* 


30  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

Halls,  Hamiltons,  Trollopes,  Thackerays,  and  Misses 
Martineaus,  et  id  omne  genus,  all  have  slandered  the 
South,  and  misrepresented  her  institutions.  These 
English  writers  all  denounce  Slavery  and  eulogize 
Democracy,  as  though  an  Englishman  could  be  a  Demo 
crat,  in  the  modern,  vulgar,  bogus  sense  of  that  much- 
abused  term,  and  still  be  a  consistent  man ! 

But,  as  already  stated,  I  do  not  propose  in  this  dis 
cussion  to  enter  into  any  defence  of  the  African  slave 
trade,  although  the  evils  of  it  are  greatly  exaggerated. 
Its  evils,  and  cruelties,  its  barbarities,  which  are  bad 
enough  at  best,  are  not  justified  by  the  most  ultra 
Southern  slaveholder.  The  vile  traffic  —  for  such  I 
characterize  it  —  was  abolished  by  the  United  States, 
even  before  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  prohibited 
it.  All  the  civilized  governments  in  the  world  have 
subsequently  prohibited  this  trade  —  some  of  the  more 
influential  and  powerful  of  them  having  declared  it 
piracy,  and  covered  the  African  seas  with  armed  ves 
sels  to  prevent  it ! 

This  trade,  which  seems  so  shocking  to  the  feelings 
of  mankind,  dates  its  origin  as  far  back  as  the  year 
1442.  Antony  Gonzales,  a  Portuguese  mariner,  while 
exploring  the  coast  of  Africa,  was  the  first  to  steal  some 
Moors,  and  was  subsequently  forced  by  Prince  Henry 
of  Portugal  to  carry  them  back  to  Africa.  In  the 
year  1502  the  Spaniards  began  to  steal  negroes,  and 
employ  them  in  the  mines  of  Hispaniola,  Cuba,  and 
Jamaica.  In  1517  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  granted 
a  patent  to  certain  privileged  persons,  to  steal  exclu 
sively  a  supply  of  4000  negroes  annually  for  these 
islands ! 


BY   W.    G.   BROWN  LOW.  31 

At  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  the 
slave  trade  was  carried  on  by  Turkey,  Holland,  England, 
France,  Spain,  Denmark,  Portugal,  the  United  States, 
and  Central  America.  In  all  of  those  countries,  how 
ever,  the  trade  has  been  suppressed,  except  in  the 
Island  of  Cuba,  and  it  is  carried  on  there,  as  it  has 
been  for  years,  only  by  the  evasion  of  law.  And  it  is 
due  to  the  truth  of  history  to  state,  that  no  two  men 
now  dead  or  alive,  have  done  more  to  put  an  end  to 
this  brutal  and  unchristian  commerce,  than  Lords  Pal- 
merston  and  John  Russell,  for  neither  of  whom  have 
I  ever  entertained  any  great  regard. 

In  1807  the  American  Congress  passed  a  law,  which 
effectually  put  a  stop  to  the  slave  trade,  by  imposing 
a  fine  of  $20,000  and  a  forfeiture  of  the  vessel,  upon 
all  persons  concerned  in  fitting  out  any  vessel  for  the 
slave  trade ;  while  the  importer  of  a  negro  from  a 
foreign  country,  if  convicted  of  selling  him  in  the 
United  States,  was,  by  that  Act,  subjected  to  a  fine 
of  $10,000,  and  imprisonment  for  a  term  of  years,  not 
less  than  five,  nor  exceeding  ten. 

And  now,  after  a  lapse  of  half  a  century  of  prohibi 
tion,  an  attempt  was  made  in  Congress,  last  winter  was 
a  year  ago,  to  revive  this  trade,  which  was  negatived 
by  a  vote  of  183  to  8,  in  the  popular  branch  of  our 
National  Legislature,  in  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution,  offered  by  COL.  JAMES  L.  ORR,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  at  present  the  Democratic  Speaker  of 
the  House : 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  INEXPEDIENT,  UNWISE,  AND  CON 
TRARY  TO  THE  SETTLED  POLICY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  tO 

repeal  the  laws  prohibiting  the  African  Slave  Trade." 


82  AFFIRMATIVE,!. 

With  pride  and  pleasure,  I  announce  that  this  reso 
lution  came  from  South  Carolina  —  that  out  of  the 
thirteen  slave  -  states  represented  in  Congress,  there 
were  but  eight  votes  against  this  resolution  —  and  that 
these  were  ultra  Southern  men,  from  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  and  Louisiana,  strongly  tinctured  with  fire-eating 
and  disunion  sentiments.  I  may  possibly  be  told  that 
repeated  efforts  have  been  made  in  the  several  sessions 
of  the  "  SOUTHERN  COMMERCIAL  CONVENTION,"  to  revive 
the  African  slave  trade.  In  reply,  I  have  to  say.  that 
these  efforts  as  repeatedly  failed.  I  was  at  different 
times  a  member  of  that  body,  and  I  therefore  speak 
advisedly. 

African  slaves  were  first  imported  into  America  in 
1620,  a  century  after  their  introduction  into  the  West 
Indies.  The  first  cargo  of  20  Africans,  by  a  Dutch 
vessel,  was  brought  up  the  James  River,  into  Virginia, 
and  sold  out  as  slaves.  Las  Casas,  a  Spanish  priest, 
superintended  the  sale  of  the  first  cargo,  and  shared 
largely  in  the  profits. 

England  then  being  the  most  commercial  of  Euro 
pean  nations,  engrossed  the  trade ;  and  from  1680  to 
1780,  one  hundred  years,  there  were  imported  into  the 
British  Possessions  alone,  two  millions  of  slaves  — 
making  an  average  annual  importation  of  more  than 
20,000 ! 

The  States  of  this  Union,  north  of  Mason  and  Dix- 
on's  Line,  commonly  called  the  New  England  States, 
alias  the  Free  States,  were  never,  to  any  great  extent, 
slaveJwlding.  No  sir-ee,  (turning  to  Mr.  Pryne)  their 
virtuous  and  pious  minds  were  chiefly  exercised  in 
slave-stealing  and  slave-selling  !  To  Old  England,  the 


BY   W.    G  .    B  R  0  W  N  L  0  W. 


33 


mother  country,  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  New  Eng 
land  States,  are  indebted  for  their  knowledge  of  the 
art  of  slave-stealing ;  and  to  the  pious,  God-fearing, 
and  liberty-loving  New  England  States,  are  we  of  the 
South,  wholly  indebted  for  our  slaves  !  The^  stole  the 
African  from  his  native  land,  and  sold  him  into  bondage 
for  the  sake  of  gain.  In  1711,  there  was  a  slave  depot 
established  in  New  York,  in  what  is  now  known  as 
Wall  Street,  and  slaves  captured  on  the  Western  coast 
of  Africa,  were  landed  there  by  New  England  vessels, 
to  supply  the  Southern  market !  About  the  same  time, 
another  slave  depot  was  opened  in  the  God-fearing 
and  liberty-loving  city  of  Boston,  near  to  where  the 
"Franklin  House"  now  stands!  They  kept  but  few 
of  their  captives  among  themselves,  because  it  was  not 
profitable  to  use  negro  labor  in  the  cold  and  sterile 
regions  of  New  England.  And  when  they  enacted 
laws  in  the  New  England  States,  abolishing  slavery, 
they  hurried  their  negroes  round  South,  in  sail  vessels, 
and  sold  them  into  bondage  to  Maryland,  Virginia, 
and  the  Carolinas,  before  their  laws  could  go  into  ope 
ration  !  What  an  unmitigated  generation  of  hypocrites ! 
They  stole  and  sold  into  perpetual  bondage,  a  race  of 
human  beings  it  was  not  profitable  to  keep,  and  for 
whom  they  now,  like  so  many  graceless  pirates,  refuse 
all  warranty.  And  what  few  American  ships  are  in 
the  trade  now,  at  the  peril  of  piracy,  are  New  England 
ships. 

Nay,  it  is  asserted  —  and  I  have  nowhere  seen  it 
contradicted,  that  as  many  as  seventy-five  vessels  were 
fitted  out  for  the  slave  trade  in  the  United  States,  dur 
ing  the  year  1857,  and  every  one  of  these  in  northern 


34  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

ports  !  I  have  no  doubt  —  though  I  cannot  prove  the 
fact — that  a  portion  of  these  are  owned  and  manned  by 
the  hypocritical  freedom-shriekers  of  the  Northern 
States,  who  desire  to  recover  the  several  sums  of  money 
they  have  contributed,  under  excitement,  to  aid  the 
cause  of  "  bleeding  Kansas." 

But  I  cannot  dismiss  this  branch  of  my  subject, 
without  going  somewhat  into  detail,  as  it  regards  the 
course  pursued  by  northern  men.  From  1804  to  1807, 
a  period  of  three  years,  there  were  imported  into  the 
little  town  of  Bristol,  in  the  State  of  Rhode  Island — a 
seaport  that  did  not  then  contain  a  population  of  2000 
souls  —  as  many  as  3914  slaves,  all  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  !  During  the  same  period,  there  were  brought 
into  Newport,  a  town  within  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  of 
Bristol,  in  the  same  State,  now  the  famous  and  attract 
ive  watering-place,  3488  slaves,  all  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  !  Providence,  in  the  same  State,  received  559, 
also  from  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  feloniously  obtained 
at  that !  Hartford,  in  Connecticut,  the  ancient  head 
quarters  of  Federalism,  whose  extreme  piety  and  "Blue 
Laws  "  led  them  to  fine  a  man  for  kissing  his  wife  on 
Sunday — this  town  received  250  of  these  stolen  negroes 
from  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  was  as  importunate  in 
her  demand  for  more,  as  was  the  celebrated  beggar  of 
London,  in  soliciting  charities !  And  the  transcend- 
antly  pious,  and  God-fearing  city  of  Boston,  received 
1000  in  the  same  length  of  time,  on  consignment,  all 
from  the  coast  of  Africa  ! 

The  slaves  brought  into  Khode  Island,  were  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  number  her  citizens  were  stealing 
from  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  carrying  directly  to  the 


BYW.G.BROWNLOW.  35 

West  Indies,  and  into  the  ports  of  Maryland,  Virginia, 
the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia !  As  many  as  fifty-nine 
slave  ships  belonged,  at  the  time,  to  the  little  State  of 
Rhode  Island,  not  larger  than  some  of  our  counties  in 
Tennessee.  Some  of  the  largest  fortunes  which  have 
descended  to  her  citizens,  were  created  by  this  nefa 
rious  traffic ;  and  but  a  few  years  ago,  there  were  men 
in  that  State,  among  the  most  honored  and  wealthy  of 
-the  inhabitants,  who  had  been  active  participants  in 
the  trade,  and  owned  the  identical  ships  that  brought 
these  human  cargoes  to  our  shores  !  One  of  her  Sena 
tors  in  Congress,  as  late  as  1827,  commenced  his  career 
in  life  as  a  slaver,  between  the  coast  of  Africa  and  the 
West  India  islands ;  and  he  had  ships  engaged  in  the 
traffic,  until  it  was  suppressed  by  the  Act  of  Congress 
already  cited  !  He  died  but  a  few  years  ago,  bequeath 
ing  a  fortune  of  millions  to  his  children  and  grand 
children,  who  are  at  this  day  classed  in  the  highest 
ranks  of  society,  and  are  among  the  bitterest  opponents 
of  negro  slavery  !  Some  one  may  be  curious  to  know 
who  this  Senator  was.  To  mention  names  would  be 
personal.  I  will  just  say,  that  in  1827,  Rhode  Island 
was  represented  in  the  Senate  by  NEHEMIAH  R. 
KNIGHT  and  ASHEK  ROBINS  ! 

Now,  too,  the  little  State  of  Rhode  Island  has  run 
mad  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  and  will  promote  no 
man  to  a  post  of  honor  who  is  not  the  advocate  of  what 
is  falsely  called  freedom.  She  spurned  Buchanan  on 
^account  of  his  Democracy,  and  Pillmore,  because  of 
his  conservative  views  touching  the  Southern  question, 
and  cast  her  vote  for  Fremont  and  Dayton  I 

The  pious  and  religious  portion  of  northern  abolition- 


36  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

ists,  I  take  it,  are  the  better  portion,  and  in  these  the 
people  of  the  South  can  repose  no  sort  of  confidence. 
Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  that  great  man,  and 
powerful  pulpit  orator,  DR.  OLIN,  who  visited  Georgia 
more  than  thirty  years  ago,  as  a  school-teacher,  and 
was  kindly  treated  by  BISHOP  ANDREW  and  others  — 
ultimately  became  a  minister  —  and  married  an  esti 
mable  Georgia  lady,  owning  quite  a  number  of  slaves. 
He  cashed  those  negroes  at  fair  prices,  pocketed  the 
money,  and  returned  to  his  congenial  North  ;  and  when 
Bishop  Andrew  was  arraigned  before  the  General  Con 
ference  of  1844,  in  New  York,  because  he  had  married 
a  widow  lady  owning  a  half  dozen  slaves,  DR.  OLIN 
appeared  on  the  floor  of  that  conference,  and  both 
spoke  and  voted  against  the  Bishop  !  I  might  multiply 
instances  of  this  kind,  but  it  is  not  necessary.  I  will 
name  the  cases  of  two  distinguished  Presbyterian 
ministers  —  DR.  BEMAN,  who  married  in  Georgia,  and 
DR.  HALL,  who  was  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  Tennes 
see — who  exchanged  their  negroes  for  money,  returned 
to  their  congenial  North,  and  became  the  zealous  advo 
cates  of  "Freedom,"  in  the  abolition  sense  of  the 
term.  These  gentlemen,  like  DR.  OLIN,  washed  their 
hands  of  the  sin  and  scandal  of  slavery,  pocketed  the 
money  their  negroes  sold  for,  and  employed  their  time 
and  talents  in  pleading  for  the  rights  of  the  poor 
Africans  of  the  South  !  May  I  not  exclaim,  "  Lord  ! 
what  is  man  ?" 

But  the  gentleman  who  follows  me  in  this  discussion^ 
as  well  as  many  who  hear  me  to-night,  may  feel  dis 
posed  to  complain  that  I  am  not  adhering  to  the 
question  in  controversy  — "  Ought  American  Slavery 


BYW.G.BROWNLOW.  3T 

to  be  perpetuated  ?"  I  purpose  to  meet  that  question, 
and  to  march  square  up  to  it — but  I  have  not  reached 
the  point  in  this  controversy,  at  which  I  design  to  meet 
this  issue.  Gentlemen  will  please  exercise  a  little 
patience. 

I  am  personally  acquainted  with  many  of  the  aboli 
tionists  of  the  North,  connected  with  the  Methodist 
Church ;  and  although  I  suppose  they  are  about  as 
pious  and  reliable  as  abolitionists  of  other  denomina 
tions,  I  have  but  little  confidence  in  their  pious  sympa 
thies  for  Southern  negroes.  Their  clergymen  will 
enter  their  fine  churches  on  the  Sabbath,  preach  and 
pray  against  the  sin  of  slavery,  shed  their  tears  over 
the  wrongs  of  the  "  servile  progeny  of  Ham"  in  the 
South;  and,  on  the  next  day,  in  a  purely  business 
transaction,  in  a  dry-goods  store,  or  a  candy  shop,  in 
closing  up  a  book  account,  they  would  cheat  a  Southern 
slave  out  of  the  pewter  that  ornaments  the  head  of  his 
walking-stick !  But,  then,  they  have  this  redeeming 
quality,  they  would  do  it  religiously,  and  in  the  sacred 
name  of  the  Lord  ! 

What  was  the  course  pursued  by  the  pious  Metho 
dists  of  the  North,  toward  their  brethren  of  the  South, 
when  the  Church  divided  in  1844  ?  The  General  Con 
ference  agreed  upon  a  "  Plan  of  Separation ;"  com 
missioners  were  subsequently  appointed  to  adjust  and 
settle  all  matters  relating  to  a  fair  and  equitable 
division  of  the  Church  property  and  funds.  The 
Southern  Conferences  met  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in 
May,  1845,  in  convention,  and  resolved  themselves 

into  a  u  SEPARATE   AND   DISTINCT   ECCLESIASTICAL  CON 
NECTION."     Instead  of  abiding  by  this  sacred  compact, 
4 


38  AFFIRMATIVE,   I. 

entered  into-  after  much  prayer  and  deliberation,  the 
Northern  Church  came  down  upon  the  Southern 
organization,  as  a  pro-slavery  Church,  intending  only 
to  strengthen  slavery  in  the  South,  and  to  protect 
slave-holding  in  the  ministry. 

And,  sir,  with  characteristic  hypocrisy,  and  anti- 
slavery  dishonesty,  the  Northern  Methodist  Church 
repudiated  the  "  Plan  of  Separation"  they  had  agreed 
upon,  and  the  adjustment  in  reference  to  the  Church 
property  and  funds  —  thus  forcing  the  Southern  com 
missioners  to  institute  legal  proceedings  against  them 
in  the  United  States  Courts  at  Cincinnati  and  New 
York,  where  the  Church  property  was  located.  These 
suits,  conducted  on  the  part  of  the  South,  by  such 
lawyers  as  LORD,  of  New  York,  KEVERDY  JOHNSON, 
of  Maryland,  STANSBURY  and  CORWIN,  of  Ohio,  and 
BRYEN,  of  Tennessee,  cost  the  Church,  South,  OVER 
SIXTEEN  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  ;  but  the  South  recovered 

about  HALF  A  MILLION  ! 

This -Church  now  has  a  mammoth  publishing  house 
in  successful  operation  at  Nashville;  and  dispersed 
throughout  her  bounds  are  her  seven  Christian  Advo 
cates,  weekly  organs  of  the  Church,  with  their  100,000 
subscribers,  and  from  three  to  five  hundred  thousand 
readers.  She  has  her  "Missionary"  organization,  now 
contributing  as  much  money  for  Missionary  purposes 
as  the  entire  Church  did  before  the  separation  in  1844. 
She  has  her  ninety  literary  institutions  —  such  as 
colleges  and  high-schools,  male  and  female,  under  her 
care  —  more  than  the  entire  Church  had  at  the  time 
of  the  separation ! 

What  next  ?     This  Church  has  24  annual  conferen- 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  39 

ces,  extending  from  the  Potomac  to  California,  and 
2300  travelling  preachers.  Beside  these,  she  numbers 
in  her  ranks  5000  local  preachers.  Within  the  bounds 
of  these  24  annual  conferences,  she  has  a  membership 

of  SIX  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY  THOUSAND,  200,000  of  whom 

are  COLORED  PERSONS,  and  slaves  at  that,  with  but  few 
exceptions ! 

At  another  time  I  will  speak  of  the  Southern  slaves 
in  connexion  with  other  Christian  denominations.  At 
present,  I  will  content  myself  with  the  remark,  that 
the  Methodist  Church,  South,  is  dispensing  more  labor, 
and  expending  more  money,  to  improve  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  slaves  ;  nay,  she  is  doing  more  for  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  the  negro  race ;  than  all  the  Wen 
dell  Phillipses,  Josh  Giddingses,  Horace  Greelys,  Ward 
Beechers,  Loyd  Garrisons,  Theodore  Parkers,  Madam 
Stowes,  and  other  freedom-shnekers,  now  out  of  the  in 
fernal  regions ! 

What  next  ?  A  distinguished  statesman  and  pa 
triot,  now  no  more,  delivered  a  speech  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1850,  and  it  was 
his  dying  speech,  for  he  never  spake  thereafter.  He 
was  posted  on  this  slavery  question,  in  all  its  bearings  ; 
and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  while  in  the  public 
councils  of  the  country,  he  watched  the  movements  of 
parties  with  sleepless  vigilance.  Speaking  of  the  effect 
of  the  Abolition  agitation  upon  the  religious  cords 
which  assisted  in  holding  the  Union  together,  this 
dying  statesman  said : 

"The  first  of  these  cords  which  snapped  under  its  explo 
sive  force  (Abolitionism)  was  that  of  the  powerful  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  The  numerous  and  strong  ties  which 
held  it  together  are  all  broken,  and  its  unity  gone." 


40  AFFIRMATIVE,   I. 

These  were  among  the  last  words  of  that  great  and 
towering  intellect,  and  tried  patriot,  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN, 
who  literally  died  in  Southern  harness,  battling  for 
the  rights  of  the  South,  under  the  Constitution.  A 
man  of  unblemished  private  character,  a  consistent 
member  of  the  Church,  and  a  firm  believer  in  the  truths 
of  the  Bible,  I  hope,  nay  I  believe  he  has  found  a  calm 
and  welcome  retreat  from  the  cares  and  anxieties  of 
political  strife,  in  the  paradise  of  our  God,  where  the 
harsh  epithets,  and  rude  insults  of  unprincipled  freedom- 
shriekers,  and  false-hearted  Abolitionists,  will  never  fall 
upon  his  ear !  for  that  class  of  men,  after  death,  never 
travel  in  the  direction  of  God's  habitation  ! 

The  explosive  force  of  Abolitionism  has  snapped  asun 
der  the  cords  and  strong  ties  of  other  Churches,  as 
well  as  that  of  the  "  powerful  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,"  which  have  long  been  holding  this  Union 
together.  The  Southern  portion  of  the  New  School 
Presbyterian  Church,  have  seperated  from  their  Aboli 
tion  brethren,  on  account  of  their  ceaseless  and  grace 
less  agitation  of  the  slavery  question,  and  have  orga 
nized  an  independent  synod ! 

The  Baptists  split  with  their  Northern  brethren  upon 
this  issue,  years  ago,  and  the  Southern  portion  of  them 
occupy  the  only  position  that  Southern  Christians  can 
occupy,  that  of  independent  ground — denying  the  right 
of  any  ecclesiastical  body  to  meddle  with  our  domestic 
institutions  ! 

The  Episcopal  Church  is  moving  in  the  same  direc 
tion,  in  getting  up  a  great  Southern  University ;  and 
although  no  formal  split  has  taken  place  in  that  Church, 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  41 

the  reckless  Abolitionists  within  her  pale,  will  sooner 
or  later  create  a  schism  of  the  worst  sort ! 

As  churches,  at  the  South,  we  cannot  affiliate  with 
men  who  fight  under  the  dark  and  piratical  flag  of 
Abolitionism,  and  whose  infernal  altars  smoke  with  the 
vile  incense  of  Northern  fanaticism !  I  have  no  confi 
dence  in  either  the  politician  or  the  divine  at  the 
North,  constantly  engaged  in  the  villanous  agitation 
of  the  slavery  question.  There  are  true,  reliable,  con 
servative,  pious,  and  patriotic  men  in  the  North,  and 
there  are  similar  men  in  the  South,  who  came  from  the 
North,  but  they  are  not  among  these  graceless  agita 
tors.  And  if  I  find  any  of  these  agitators  in  heaven — 
where  I  expect  to  go  after  death  —  I  shall  conclude 
they  have  entered  that  world  of  joy,  by  practising  a 
gross  fraud  upon  the  door-keeper ! 

There  is  much  in  the  political  papers  of  our  country, 
and  especially  at  the  North,  calculated,  if  not  intended, 
to  fan  a  flame  of  intense  warfare  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery,  between  the  North  and  the  South,  which  can 
result  in  no  possible  good  to  either  section.  Those 
politicians,  and  bad  men,  who  are  exciting  the. whole 
country,  and  fanning  society  into  a  livid  consuming 
flame,  particularly  at  the  North,  have  no  sympathies 
for  the  Hack  man.,  and  care  nothing  for  his  comfort. 
They  seek  their  own  —  not  the  negro's  good.  My 
competitor  may  retort,  that  I  am  a  leading  newspaper 
editor  in  one  of  the  Southern  States,  and  that  I  am 
violent  upon  this  subject.  I  am  violent  in  defence  of 
the  rights  of  the  South,  as  I  understand  them.  A 
glance  at  my  history,  will  acquit  me  of  the  charge  of 
sectionalism.  A  native  of  the  "Old  Dominion,"  I 
4* 


42  AFFIRMATIVE,     I. 

have  resided  in  Tennessee  for  the  last  thirty  years,  and 
have  been  that  long  connected  with  the  politics  of  the 
country.  In  1828,  I  supported  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 
in  opposition  to  ANDREW  JACKSON.  Subsequently  I 
suppprted  CLAY,  HARRISON,  and  TAYLOR.  In  opposition 
to  SCOTT  and  PIERCE,  I  went  for  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 
Last,  but  not  least,  I  supported  FILLMORE.  Thus  I 
have  supported  patriots  and  statesmen,  without  any 
regard  to  their  local  habitations.  But,  this  political 
disquietude  and  commotion,  I  regret  to  say,  is  giving 
birth  to  new  and  loftier  schemes  of  agitation  and  dis 
union,  among  the  vile  Abolitionists  of  the  country,  and 
to  bold  and  hazardous  enterprises  in  the  States  and 
Territories ;  and  many  of  our  Southern  altars  smoke 
with  the  offensive  incense  of  Abolitionism.  "We  have 
scores  of  these  men  in  the  South,  in  disguise  —  design 
ing  men:  some  filling  our  pulpits  —  some  occupying 
high  positions  in  our  colleges  —  some  editing  political, 
and  some  religious  papers  —  some  selling  goods  —  some 
retailing  pills — some  keeping  hotels — and  some  follow 
ing  one  calling,  and  some  another,  who,  though  among 
us,  are  not  of  us,  but  are  in  many  instances,  our  worst 
enemies. 

But  the  reverend  gentleman  who  follows  me,  would 
no  doubt  like  to  hear  what  I  have  to  say  in  answer  to 
his  question,  "  Ought  American  slavery  to  be  perpetu 
ated  ?"  This  question  I  will  affirm,  when,  in  the  pro 
gress  of  this  controversy,  I  reach  it.  For  the  present, 
I  have  only  to  say,  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was 
established  for  the  benefit  of  that  class  of  the  human 
family  who  had  not  the  capacity  to  provide  for  their 
wants — and  of  this  class  are  the  entire  African  race — 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  43 

a  class  that  existed  in  the  days  of  Moses  —  has  existed 
ever  since  —  and  will  continue  to  exist  as  long  as  man 
is  clothed  with  the  infirmities  of  mortality.  Yes — the 
decree  has  gone  forth,  that  fully  two-thirds  of  the  civi 
lized  race  of  man  shall  work  for  the  rest  in  the  capacity 
of  bond  or  hired  servants.  It  is  a  decree  that  pervades 
the  dominions  of  civilization,  not  as  the  edict  of  duty, 
but  of  fallen  humanity ;  and  to  meliorate  the  sufferings 
of  the  dependant,  by  affording  them  a  competency  dur 
ing  sickness  and  aged  infirmity,  bondage  was  instituted 
by  Moses,  under  the  inspiration  of  God !  This  form 
of  slavery,  then,  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  will 
of  God.  And  I  shall  be  able  to  show  that  "  American 
slavery  "  does  not  differ  inform  or  principle,  from  that 
of  the  chosen  people  of  God. 

I  endorse,  without  reserve,  that  much-abused  senti 
ment  of  an  eminent  Southern  statesman,  now  no  more, 
Gov.  McDuFFiE,  that  "slavery  is  the  corner-stone  of 
our  republican  edifice;"  while  I  repudiate,  as  ridicu 
lously  absurd,  that  much  lauded,  but  nowhere  accre 
dited  dogma  of  THOMAS  JEFFERSON'S,  that  "  all  men 
are  born  equal."  God  never  intended  to  make  the 
negro  the  equal  of  the  white  man,  either  morally,  men 
tally,  or  physically.  He  never  intended  to  make  the 
butcher  a  judge,  nor  the  baker  a  president,  but  to  pro 
tect  them  according  to  their  claims  as  butcher  and 
baker.  Pope  has  beautifully  expressed  this  sentiment, 
in  these  lines : 

"  Order  is  heaven's  first  law,  and  this  confess'd, 
Some  are,  and  MUST  BE,  greater  than  the  rest." 

I  have  gone  among  the  free  negroes  of  the  North  — 
I  have  visited  their  miserable  dwellings  in  New  York, 


44  AFFIRMATIVE,    I. 

Providence,  Boston,  and  other  large  towns.  I  have 
more  than  once  visited  the  negro  localities  of  this,  the 
"  Quaker  City,"  and  twenty-five  years  ago,  I  preached 
to  them  in  this  city;  and  in  every  instance,  I  have 
found  them  more  miserable  and  destitute,  as  a  whole, 
than  the  slave  population  of  any  portion  of  the  South. 
And  this  must  necessarily  be  the  case,  while  time  shall 
last,  and  the  regulations  of  human  society  remain  as 
they  are,  and  have  been.  In  our  Southern  States, 
where  negroes  have  been  set  at  liberty,  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten,  their  condition  has  been  made  worse  ;  while 
the  most  wretched,  indolent,  immoral,  and  dishonest 
class  of  persons  to  be  found  in  the  Southern  States,  are 
free  persons  of  color.  But  more  of  this  hereafter,  as 
an  argument  to  prove  that  " American  slavery  ought  to 
be  perpetuated!" 

The  freedom  of  negroes  in  even  your  Free  States,  is, 
in  all  respects,  only  an  empty  name.  Your  citizen 
negro  does  not  vote,  and  takes  good  care  not  to  do  so. 
The  law  does  not  interdict  him  this  privilege,  in  some 
of  your  States,  but  if  he  attempt  to  avail  himself  of  the 
privilege,  should  he  differ  in  his  choice  of  candidates 
with  your  white  "  lords  of  creation,"  he  is  apprehensive 
of  apostolic  blows  and  kicks,"  which  pious  Abolitionists 
will  administer  to  him  ! 

All  the  social  advantages,  all  the  respectable  employ 
ments,  all  the  honors,  and  even  the  pleasures  of  life, 
are  denied  the  free  negroes  of  the,North,  by  pious  Abo. 
litionists  full  of  sympathy  for  the  down-trodden  Afri 
can  !  The  negro  cannot  get  into  an  omnibus,  cannot 
enter  a  bar-room  frequented  by  whites,  nor  a  church, 
nor  a  theatre ;  nor  can  he  enter  the  cabin  of  a  steam- 


BY    W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  45 

boat,  on  one  of  your  Northern  rivers  or  lakes,  or  enter 
a  first-class  passenger  car  on  one  of  your  railroads. 
When  a  negro  has  dared  to  do  so,  in  New  York,  he  has 
been  unceremoniously  thrown  out,  and  has  taken  his 
case  into  court,  as  you  very  well  know :  the  court  has 
held  that  the  conductor  served  him  right !  As  a  gene 
ral  thing,  in  New  England,  negroes  are  not  suffered  to 
enter  a  stage  coach  with  whites,  but  are  forced  upon 
deck,  whether  it  shall  rain  or  shine,  whether  it  be  hot 
or  cold.  Industry  is  closed  to  them,  and  they  are 
forced  to  live  as  servants  in  hotels,  or  adopt  the  pro 
fession  of  barber,  or  boot-black,  or  open  oysters  in  sa 
loons,  or  sell  villanous  liquors  to  the  lower  classes  of 
foreign  emigrants,  who  throng  our  large  cities  and 
towns.  The  negroes  even  have  their  own  streets,  and 
their  own  low-down  kennels,  as  is  the  case  here  in  Phi 
ladelphia,  even !  In  nearly  all  the  Northern  States, 
they  have  their  own  hospitals,  their  churches,  their 
cars,  upon  which,  in  many  instances,  are  written  in 
large  letters,  "  FOR  COLORED  PEOPLE." 

Finally,  as  many  of  you  well  know,  they  are  forced 
to  have  their  own  grave-yards  —  the  yellow  remains  of 
Northern  Abolitionists,  and  pious  white  men,  refusing 
to  mingle  with  the  bleaching  bones  of  the  dead  negro, 
after  death !  Not  so  in  the  South :  they  crowd  the 
galleries  and  back-seats  in  our  churches,  travel  in  our 
passenger-cars  and  stage-coaches ;  and,  in  our  cemete- 
teries,  they  are  frequently  buried  with  the  whites,  in 
their  owners'  lots.  I  know  this  to  be  true. 

In  ancient  Jerusalem,  which  is  nought  but  a  heap 
of  mouldering  bones  and  shattered  houses,  eastern 
travellers  tell  us,  that  the  promenades  are  cemeteries* 


46  AFFIRMATIVE,   I. 

and  the  very  seats  are  whited  sepulchres,  where  whole 
generations  of  Jews  have  been  buried.  But  —  unlike 
our  Northern  anti-slavery  men  —  there  are  the  bones 
of  the  Assyrian,  the  Egyptian  negro,  the  Chaldean, 
the  Persian,  the  Greek,  the  Syrian,  the  Roman,  the 
Crusader,  and  the  Turk !  There  they  have  all  met 
together,  acting  out  the  principle  that  "the  Lord  is 
the  Maker  of  us  all." 

During  the  past  year,  I  have  seen  the  particulars 
of  a  movement  in  the  Canadian  Parliament,  looking  to 
the  removal  from  that  province  of  all  free  negroes  and 
fugitive  slaves,  who,  as  alleged,  have  proven  positive 
nuisances. 

The  notorious  G-erritt  Smith,  who,  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  has  been  a  rabid  Abolitionist,  and  has  be 
stowed  many  farms  upon  free  negroes,  in  his  great  zeal 
to  promote  the  happiness  of  the  colored  race,  has  be 
come  disgusted  with  the  recipients  of  his  bounty.  He 
published  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  that  "the  colored 
people  are  generally  idle,  worthless,  and  vicious,'"  and 
that  his  "expectations  of  their  reformation  have  IN  NO 
DEGREE  BEEN  REALIZED."  He  asserts  that  half  of 
those  to  whom  he  "gave  farms  have  sold  their  lands, 
or  have  been  so  worthless  as  to  allow  them  to  be  sold 
for  taxes."  And  G-erritt  Smith  is  not  the  only  anti- 
slavery  man  in  the  North  who  has  made  the  discovery 
that  white  men  subsist  comfortably  and  make  money, 
while  negroes  are  ignorant  and  thriftless  !  Suffer  me 
to  edify  you  with  a  brief  article  from  the  Cincinnati 
Enquirer,  for  July,  1857,  the  great  political  organ  of 
Ohio: 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  47 

"  There  is  a  remarkable  and  very  suggestive  fact  in  regard 
to  the  negro  emigration  into  this  State.  It  is  this  :  Of  the 
twenty-five  thousand  free  negroes  in  the  State,  the  vast  ma 
jority  reside  in  counties  where  there  are  very  few  Abolition 
ists,  and  which  have  been  chiefly  settled  by  emigrants  from 
the  Southern  States.  These  negroes  appear  to  have  a  great 
dread  of  the  Abolition  counties;  they  give  them  a  wide  berth. 
Thus,  for  example,  Ashtabula  has  a  negro  population  of  forty- 
three;  Geauga,  seven;  Trumbull,  sixty-five.  The  other  coun 
ties  on  the  lake  have  a  proportionate  number  of  negroes. 
These  counties  are  settled  almost  exclusively  by  New  Eng 
land  emigrants.  On  the  other  hand,  Ross  county,  a  Virginia 
settlement,  has  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  six  negroes; 
Gallia  has  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety-eight;  and 
Hamilton  county  has  over  four  thousand. 

"  In  these  counties  the  negro  is  regarded  as  inferior,  so 
cially  and  politically;  and  the  Abolitionist  has  but  a  slight 
hold.  What  is  the  cause  of  this  striking  discrepancy?  Is 
it  that  the  negro  feels  and  knows  his  inferiority,  and  natu 
rally  attaches  himself  to  the  population  which  is  disposed  to 
regard  him  as  an  inferior?  or  is  it  that  the  whites  in  the  lake 
shore  counties  are  Abolitionists  from  an  ignorance  of  the  real 
character  of  the  negro  ?  Certainly  there  is  no  better  mode 
of  curing  a  neighborhood  of  Abolitionism  than  by  inflicting 
on  them  a  colony  of  free  negroes.  The  only  way  in  which 
Giddings  can  be  defeated  will  be  by  a  few  more  such  philan 
thropic  efforts  as  those  of  Col.  Mendenhall,  in  settling  a  few 
hundred  North  Carolina  or  Kentucky  negroes  in  Ashtabula. 
If  our  Southern  friends  will  send  us  their  surplus  negro 
population,  let  them  provide  that  they  may  be  located  among 
their  kind  and  generous  friends  in  the  Western  Reserve. 
Such  earnest  philanthropy  as  they  profess  ought  not  to  be 
'  wasted  on  the  desert/  " 

The  New  York  Times,  good  anti-slavery  authority, 
in  publishing  the  proceedings  of  a  meeting  held  in 
Kingston,  Jamaica,  on  the  23d  of  April  last,  in  refer 
ence  to  persons  of  color,  sets  forth  the  following  facts 
in  the  two  brief  extracts  I  read  you : 


48  AFFIRMATIVE,!. 

"One  gentleman  who  visited  this  country  so  long-  ago  as 
1840,  with  a  view  to  procure  colored  laborers,  spoke  very 
highly  of  the  character  and  capacity  of  the  free  negroes  he 
saw  at  the  South ;  but  those  he  met  in  New  York  did  not 
impress  him  favorably  at  all.  Neither  their  habits  of  indus 
try  nor  their  morals  were  such  as  he  desired  to  see." 

"  The  island  of  Jamaica,  the  largest  of  the  British  West 
India  possessions,  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long,  and 
averages  about  forty  in  width.  Its  area  is  4,250  square  miles 
—  about  two-thirds  the  size  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 
The  population  in  1848  was  380,000,  of  whom  only  16,000 
were  whites.  The  emancipated  slaves  have,  to  a  great  ex 
tent,  wholly  refused  to  work;  and,  consequently,  hundreds 
of  estates  all  over  the  island  have  been  abandoned.  It  is  to 
remedy  this  evil  that  free  colored  emigration  is  solicited. 
What  the  result  of  the  movement  may  be  remains  to  be 


The  following  paragraph  is  from  the  pen  of  a  North 
ern  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times,  for  1858, 
writing  from  New  Orleans : 

"  Bad  as  we  of  the  North  believe  slavery  to  be,  I  have  yet 
to  see  the  first  sign  of  the  squalid  wretchedness,  poverty,  and 
degradation  among  the  blacks  here,  which  we  daily  see  among 
the  blacks  and  the  foreigners  of  the  North. 

li  I  have  been  in  several  of  of  the  churches  built  for  the 
slaves,  and  I  have  seen  crowds  of  them  worshipping  with 
their  masters  in  the  same  great  congregation.  They  are 
wonderfully  impressible,  uttering  their  feelings  in  the  very 
midst  of  the  services  —  sometimes  by  a  simple  'yes,  yes/ 
sometimes  by  a  long  low  wail,  or  a  sweet  plaintive  musical 
sound  that  goes  all  over  the  congregation,  and  often  by  a 
shriek  from  some  female  voice,  followed  with  a  spasmodic 
uplifting  of  the  hands,  and  then  a  slight  swoon,  which  draws 
together  a  crowd  of  sympathizing  negroes,  who  attend  to  the 
subject  until  she  is  restored  to  consciousness.  All  the  while 
the  services  go  on  as  if  nothing  was  the  matter,  the  preacher 
evidently  satisfied  with  this  evidence  of  his  power  over  his 
audience." 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  49 

The  Philadelphia  North  American,  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  influential  journals  of  this  city,  and  bitterly 
opposed  to  slavery,  has  a  long  article  in  one  of  its 
issues  for  1858,  upon  the  condition  and  prospects  of 
the  free  negro  population  of  the  Free  States.  I  sub 
join  a  few  short  paragraphs  from  its  article,  as  they 
fully  sustain  my  charges  : 

"  If  there  is  any  one  fact  established  by  steadily  accumu 
lating  evidence  it  is  that  the  free  negro  cannot  find  a  conge 
nial  home  in  the  United  States.  He  is  an  exotic  amongst 
us;  and  all  the  efforts  of  philanthropists  to  naturalize  him 
on  American  soil  and  under  American  skies,  have  failed." 

"  Ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  make  a  precarious  living  by 
contentedly  performing  the  most  menial  offices,  or  live  in. 
idleness  and  wretchedness. —  We  can  hardly  fail  to  attribute 
this  to  characteristics  of  their  own.  We  see  the  blacks  daily 
driven  from  avocations  once  almost  exclusively  their  own. 
It  is  long  since  they  have  flourished  in  any  of  the  trades,  if 
they  ever  pursued  them  with  success." 

"  Whatever  explanation  may  be  given  of  these  facts,  the 
facts  themselves  cannot  be  denied;  and  what  is  to  be  done 
with  our  colored  population,  unless  they  can  be  induced  to 
return  as  colonists  to  the  native  land  of  their  race,  or  seek 
some  other  tropical  region,  baffles  the  wisest  of  us  to  say." 

The  North  American  then  refers  to  the  aversion 
which  has  been  exhibited  by  the  North-western  States 
to  free  negroes,  and  the  measures  which  they  have 
taken  to  exclude  this  class  of  population,  and  says : 

"  In  a  Free  State,  where  emigration  is  invited  by  holding 
out  every  inducement  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  old  States 
and  to  foreigners,  this  aversion  to  the  presence  of  colored 
people  can  only  be  explained  by  the  opinion  that  has  ob 
tained,  almost  universally,  that  they  cannot  become  useful 
citizens  of  the  United  States ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  they 
cannot  compete  on  equal  terms  with  the  white  race." 

5 


50  AFFIRMATIVE,     I. 

Last,  but  not  least,  the  New  York  Herald,  for  July 
8,  1858,  in  its  notice  of  the  public  meeting  and  free 
negro  meeting  at  Kingston,  in  Jamaica,  says : 

"  The  state  of  affairs  shown  to  exist,  and  the  admissions 
made  by  the  speakers  at  this  meeting,  in  relation  to  the  free 
negro  communities  generally,  are  of  an  extraordinary  cha 
racter.  Jamaica  itself  is  acknowledged  to  continue  its  reces 
sion  towards  barbarism ;  Liberia  is  pronounced  to  be  a  hum 
bug,  both  as  a  country  and  as  a  social  community;  the  free 
negroes  of  the  North  are  rejected  as  vicious  and  worthless, 
and  those  of  the  South  are  pronounced  to  be  the  only 
ones  fitted  to  become  colonists.  In  this  admission  a  strong 
out  indirect  compliment  is  paid  to  the  effect  of  Southern 
legislation  and  education  upon  the  negro  nature,  and  it  is 
not  the  less  significant  that  it  comes  from  the  colored  human 
itarians  themselves/' 

It  will  not  do  to  meet  me  with  an  "  Oh !  these  are 
only  newspaper  paragraphs,  and  the  newspapers  of  the 
country  are  very  unreliable."  They  give  facts,  known 
to  be  such  by  every  intelligent  man  who  hears  me. 
Besides,  these  are  the  more  significant,  as  they  come 
from  the  acknowledged  organs  of  "the  colored  human 
itarians,"  as  the  Herald  styles  them  ! 

In  a  Republican  Convention  in  Minnesota,  only  one 
year  ago,  the  vote  was  two  to  one  against  the  negro ! 
The  Convention  resolved,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  "that 
negroes  were  born  free  and  equal  with  white  men ;" 
and  then,  by  a  vote  of  two  to  one,  refused  to  admit  the 
negroes  to  that  equality,  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  those 
rights  they  had  resolved  that  they  were  "born"  heir 
to !  And  this  is  but  in  keeping  with  Abolition  con 
sistency,  wherever  they  are  found. 


BYW.G.BROWNLOW.  51 

My  time  has  expired,  and  I  must  close,  yielding  the 
stand  to  the  gentleman  who  presents  the  negative  side 
of  the  question.  This,  my  introductory  address,  is 
intended  to  prepare  the  mind  of  the  gentleman,  and 
of  the  audience,  for  what  is  to  come  !  Thanking  you 
for  your  patient  and  respectful  attention,  I  will  now 
join  you  in  an  equally  patient  hearing  of  Mr.  Pryne. 


7 


r 


~4^J/L^ 


NEGATIVE,    I.  —  BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  53 

To  argue  down  American  slavery,  I  must  meet 
1200,000,000  of  dollars,  with  logic  and  ethics ;  must 
overturn  the  precedents  of  our  national  administrations, 
the  forms  of  American  law,  the  teachings  of  our  past 
literature,  and  the  sanctions  of  our  religion.  And 
when  I  reflect  that  with  all  these,  in  popular  estima 
tion,  against  me,  I  am  to  meet  the  reputed  Ajax  of 
slavery  propagandism  in  this  debate,  you  will  agree 
with  me  that  I  may  well  stand  appalled.  Besides,  I 
come  to  you  an  unknown  man,  with  no  trumpet  of  fame 
to  announce  me,  no  confident  national  reputation  to 
inspire  me  with  courage.  I  cannot  boast  of  learning 
or  eloquence,  but  am'  only  a  plain  man,  with  a  heart 
faithful  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  arid  a  will  to  do  some 
service  in  her  behalf. 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  many  things  which 
gather  around  this  debate  to  give  me  courage.  My 
cause  is  itself  an  inspiration.  I  speak  for  voiceless 
maidens  sold  in  the  shambles ;  for  millions  of  strong 
men  rendered  mute  by  chains ;  for  religion,  justice, 
law,  and  an  outraged  God ;  circling  out  from  this  hall, 
the  vast  audience  of  the  civilized  world  will  listen  for 
the  words  of  this  debate.  Thousands  of  freemen  in 
the  North  will  bend  their  ears  and  abate  their  breath  to 
learn  how  their  self-elected  champion  bears  himself  in 
this  controversy.  Thousands  of  oppressors  in  the  South 
will  listen  for  the  words  of  this  debate ;  and  if  I  fail 
with  such  a  cause  to  plead,  I  shall  be  followed  to  a 
shameful  grave  by  the  deep-voiced  execrations  of  my 
countrymen  ;  but  if  I  succeed  I  shall  carry  to  my  grave 
the  proud  consciousness  of  having  struck  one  good 
blow  for  God  and  freedom.  Appealing  therefore  to 
5* 


54  NEGATIVE,    I. 

the  justice  of  my  cause  for  aid,  and  to  the  great  God 
of  all  peoples  for  inspiration,  I  launch  forth  upon  the 
stormy  waves  of  this  debate. 

I  am  to  maintain,  not  that  American  slavery  ought  to 
be  limited,  regulated,  or  restricted,  but  that  it  ought  to 
relax  its  ruffian  grasp  from  the  throat  of  every  victim 
on  this  continent  and  DIB.  "With  me,  in  this  debate, 
slavery  has  no  rights  but  one,  and  that  is  the  right  to 
a  grave  so  deep  that  it  shall  never  have  a  resurrection. 
I  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  schemes  for  its  ameliora 
tion  or  restriction ;  but,  in  the  name  of  God  and 
humanity  I  demand  its  annihilation. 

Shall  slavery  live  ?  This  question  is  up  —  up  in 
church  and  state — up  in  senate-hall  and  sabbath-school 
—  up  at  the  communion-table  and  the  council-room — 
up  in  school-house  and  court-room — up  from  the  golden 
sands  of  California  to  the  stormy  shores  of  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  —  from  Cape  Sable  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River — and,  like  the  ghost  of  Banquo,  it  will 
not  "  down,"  though  priest  and  politician  bid  it  "  void" 
their  presence ;  and  I  am  here  to  meet  it  and  question  it. 

"Though  hell  itself  should  gape, 
And  bid  me  hold  my  peace." 

My  first  argument  against  American  Slavery  is  that 
it  began  in  robbery,  piracy,  and  murder ;  and  having 
this  indescribably  wicked  beginning,  it  ought  to  die. 
It  was  born  of  rapacity  and  cruelty,  without  the  sanc 
tions  of  law  for  its  birth,  and  every  step  of  its  exist 
ence  since  has  been  a  criminal  existence,  in  defiance  of 
the  just  rights  of  the  hangman  and  the  halter. 

The  first  Englishman  who  committed  the  rape  of 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  55 

one  continent,  and  entailed  ages  of  prostitution  upon 
another,  by  opening  the  African  slave  trade,  was  Sir 
John  Hawkins,  an  adventurous  buccaneer  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  English  queen  gave  him  a 
license  to  trade  to  Africa,  and  import  to  America  such 
natives  as  he  could  persuade  (!)  to  accompany  him ; 
expressly  enjoining  in  the  license,  that  he  should  not 
use  force,  or  fraud,  or  violence,  to  induce  them  to 
accompany  him.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  the  very 
giving  of  such  a  license  was  a  violation  of  the  law  of 
civilized  nations.  Queen  Elizabeth  had  no  more  right 
to  give  a  license  to  her  subject  to  trade  in  Africans, 
than  has  Queen  Victoria  a  right  to  license  her  subjects 
to  trade  in  Tennesseeans.  She  could  have  no  sove 
reignty  over  Africa,  and  could  only  license  lawful  trade, 
subject  to  treaties  with  the  African  kings ;  and  this 
trade  being,  in  its  very  nature  unlawful  and  piratical, 
could  not  be  licensed,  according  to  any  civilized  lav/, 
human  or  divine. 

But  whatever  shadow  of  sanction  this  license  seemed 
to  give  to  the  murderous  traffic,  is  dissipated  by  the 
history  of  the  expeditions  of  Hawkins.  He  violated 
the  very  terms  of  his  license  every  voyage,  and  in  the 
case  of  every  slave.  He  did  use  "  force,  violence,  and 
fraud,"  contrary  to  the  express  prohibitions  of  his 
license.  He  desolated  the  coast  with  fire  and  sword  ; 
he  kidnapped  the  inhabitants,  and  loaded  them  with 
chains,  at  their  own  doors ;  he  burned  their  dwellings, 
stole  men,  women,  and  children,  and  drove  them  at 
the  point  of  the  pike  into  the  hold  of  his  vessel,  and 
thus  at  every  step  violated  the  license  under  which  he 
professed  to  act. 


56  NEGATIVE,    I. 

When  the  death  hour  of  this  inhuman  trnffic  came, 
when  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce,  and  last  of  all,  Pitt, 
had  roused  the  British  nation  to  its  enormity  —  and 
Wilberforce,  of  whom  Lamartine  said,  "at  his  death 
he  went  up  to  the  Throne  of  God  with  a  million  broken 
fetters  in  his  hands" — had  for  the  last  time  moved  in 
the  British  parliament  the  abolition  of  this  trade,  Pitt 
startled  its  defenders,  and  electrified  the  House  with 
the  following  brave  words : 

11 Any  contract,"  he  said,  "  for  the  promotion  of  this  trade 
must,  in  his  opinion,  have  been  VOID  FROM  THE  BEGIN 
NING-,  for  if  it  was  an  outrage  upon  justice,  and  only 
another  name  for  fraud,  robbery,  and  murder,  what  pledge 
.could  devolve  on  the  legislature  to  incur  the  obligation  of 
becoming  principals  in  the  commission  of  such  enormities, 
by  sanctioning  their  continuance? 

"  But  he  would  appeal  to  the  acts  themselves.  That  of 
23  George  II.  c.  31,  was  the  one  upon  which  the  greatest 
stress  was  laid.  How  would  the  House  be  surprised  to  hear 
that  these  very  outrages,  committed  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  trade,  had  been  forbidden  by  that  act !  '  No  master  of  a 
ship  trading  to  Africa/  says  the  act,  '  shall,  by  fraud,  force, 
or  violence,  or  by  any  indirect  practice  whatever,  take  on 
board  or  carry  away  from  that  coast  any  Negro,  or  native  of 
that  country,  or  commit  any  violence  upon  the  natives,  to 
the  prejudice  of  said  trade;  and  every  person  so  oifending 
shall,  for  every  such  offence,  forfeit  one  hundred  pounds/ 
But  the  whole  trade  had  been  demonstrated  to  be  a  system 
of  fraud  and  violence,  and  therefore  the  contract  was  daily 
violated,  under  which  the  Parliament  allowed  it  to  continue." 
• —  Clarkson' s  History,  p.  314. 

Thus  did  the  great  English  statesman  sweep  down 
every  vestige  of  a  legal  foundation  for  the  Slave  Trade, 
and  reveal  the  whole  system  as  naked  piracy.  This 
trade  was  the  fountain  from  which  slavery  proceeded  — 
the  infernal  womb  from  which  the  haggard  monster 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  57 

was  born ;  and  having  such  a  birth,  it  could  have  no 
legitimate  life  in  civilized  society ;  no  rights  but  the 
right  to  be  hunted  to  its  death  like  the  fabled  dragons 
of  old. 

Here  I  am  happy  to  stand  on  common  ground  in  this 
debate,  and  to  start  the  first  proposition  of  my  argu 
ment  against  American  slavery  on  ground  in  which 
my  opponent  and  myself  agree.  Having  had  the  pre 
mises  of  my  first .  argument  most  fully  admitted  and 
argued  by  my  opponent,  I  need  offer  no  further  argu 
ment  to  prove  these  premises,  but  only  lead  you  to  the 
legitimate,  inevitable  conclusion  from  the  premises  that 
he  himself  has  furnished  me.  If  the  slave  trade  was 
piracy  at  its  beginning  —  if  it  was  villanous  in  its 
inception  and  its  carrying  out  —  then,  as  it  and 
American  slavery  drew  their  first  breath  simultaneously, 
and  as  American  slavery  never  could  have  had  an 
existence  without  the  slave  trade,  and  has  drawn  from 
that  trade  the  new  blood  with  which  it  has  covered  the 
soil  of  our  own  land,  I  have  only  to  take  the  premises 
of  my  opponent  to  a  conclusion  which  no  man  can 
dodge  —  that  that  which  necessarily  and  legitimately 
grew  out  of  what  he  joins  with  John  Wesley  in 
denouncing  as  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies,"  is  itself  also 
villanous.  Slavery  and  the  slave  trade  rise  or  fall 
together.  The  trade  was  the  grand  trunk  artery  of 
the  whole  system  in  its  beginning,  and  will  be  in  the 
continuance  ^f  its  existence  ;  and  I  am  astonished  that 
a  mind  so  logical  as  that  of  my  opponent  did  not  strike 
deeper,  and  defend  the  trade,  as  the  only  premises 
upon  which  slavery  can  plant  its  foot,  outside  the 
infernal  regions.  I  fully  expected  him  to  do  this,  and 


58  NEGATIVE,   I. 

in  failing  to  do  it,  and  in  condemning  the  origin  of 
slavery,  he  has  blasted  its  character  forever  with  the 
dark  crime  of  its  birth  ;  and  no  form's  of  legislation,  no 
baptisms  of  religion,  no  sanctions  of  time,  or  lapse  of 
ages,  can  render  innocent  in  its  after  life  that  which 
committed  a  foul  crime  at  its  very  birth. 

The  slave  trade  having  been  conceded  to  be  illegal, 
and  wrong,  and  villanous,  I  shall  go  on  to  the  infer 
ence.  Slavery  having  had  its  birth  in  that  trade  — 
that  trade  being  its  mother  —  and  the  man  who  first 
invented  and  carried  out  that  trade,  committing  the 
rape  of  one  continent,  and  centuries  of  prostitution 
for  another,  being  held  up  here  before  us  as  a  violator 
of  all  law,  human  and  divine,  and  as  a  scourge  of  his 
race — the  children  of  that  trade,  and  the  products  of 
that  trade,  and  the  results  of  that  trade,  all  the  way 
up  to  the  ripe  fruit  of  plantation  discipline,  all  partake 
of  the  illegitimate  character  of  the  trade  itself.  Between 
the  middle-passage,  with  all  its  horror,  and  the  planta 
tion  discipline,  there  is  an  iron-linked,  logical  con 
nection,  that  even  the  Ajax  of  pro-slavery  propagandise! 
will  in  vain  attempt  to  break. 

Right  and  wrong  are  not  subject  to  territorial  bound 
aries.  Morality  has  no  geographical  limits.  If  the 
slave  trade  is  wrong  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  it  is  wrong 
in  America.  It  is  no  greater  crime  to  rob  a  mother 
of  her  babe  on  the  Guinea  coast,  than  in  the  streets  of 
Richmond.  The  domestic  slave  trade  is  the  same  in 
morals,  the  same  before  God  as  the  foreign  slave  trade. 
To  rob  a  father  of  his  daughter,  or  a  mother  of  her  son, 
on  the  Niger,  or  the  Big  Boom,  in  Africa,  is  no  worse 
than  to  do  this  same  deed  on  the  Potomac,  or  Tombiot- 

/  o 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  59 

bee,  in  America.  Trading  in  human  beings  is  the  same 
unmatched  crime,  whether  done  by  brutal  buccaneers, 
on  the  African  codst,  or  canting  priests  and  whining 
deacons,  from  the  bosom  of  a  Southern  church.  Whe 
ther  this  crime  be  prefaced  by  a  prayer  or  an  oath,  by 
a  psalm  or  a  pirate's  song,  the  crime  still  stands  unri 
valled  in  its  enormity — and  as  every  day's  continuance 
of  slavery  involves  the  continuance  of  the  domestic 
trade,  with  all  its  horrors,  slavery  ought  to  die.  Why 
should  a  sailor  be  hung  for  being  caught  in  the  slave 
trade,  fifty  miles  at  sea,  and  a  priest  be  applauded  and 
petted,  while  engaged  in  the  same  kind  of  trade  on 
land  ?  Does  cant  cover  crime,  or  will  the  mockery  of 
hypocritical  words  blind  the  eyes  of  God  ?  Will  pioua 
grimace  cloak  bloody  wrong  ?  Will  you  drown  the 
Toice  of  justice  by  a  psalm,  and  mob  down  the  cry  of 
murdered  innocence  with  drawling  prayers  ?  Ah ! 
God  can  see  through  the  smoke  of  hypocritical  sacra- 
fice,  and  hear  the  cry  of  the  poor  along  with  the  din 
of  brawling  cant ! 

But  I  go  further,  gentlemen,  than  to  argue  that 
American  slavery  ought  to  die  because  it  had  its  origin 
in  a  confessedly  villanous  trade,  and  in  an  outrage  and 
a  wrong  upon  -humanity.  I  say  that,  in  its  historical 
development  from  that  day  to  this,  every  progressive 
step  in  its  career  has  been  equally  outrageous  in  the 
eye  of  the  law  of  nations,  the  laws  of  our  own  land,  and 
the  laws  of  God.  Its  entire  life,  from  its  villanous 
birth  to  this  night,  has  been  in  defiance  of  the  just 
claims  of  God's  outraged  justice. 

And  now  I  am  about  to  take  a  bold  position — one 
that  will  startle  Free  Soilers  and  Republicans — one  for 


60  NEGATIVE,   I. 

which  I  stand  here  to-night  alone  responsible.  I  pro 
claim  the  doctrine  that,  according  to  all  just  notions 
of  human  law,  there  never  was  and  never  can  be  a  slave 
legally  held  on  the  American  continent.  As  my 
opponent  tells  me  that  he  is  a  friend  of  law  and  order, 
that  he  is  a  friend  of  constitutions  and  government, 
that  he  is  no  enemy  of  the  laws  of  the  land — when  I 
shall  have  proved  to  you,  as  I  will,  that  American 
slavery,  from  beginning  to  end,  is  a  system  of  law 
lessness,  then  I  shall  have  him  on  my  side,  for  he  is 
pledged  to  the  support  of  law  and  order. 

The  Slave  States  of  this  Union  have  never  established 
slavery  by  direct  and  positive  legal  enactments.  No 
statute  establishing  it  can  be  found.  The  positive  law 
refuses  to  interfere,  and  leaves  the  master  to  catch  the 
slave  if  he  can,  while,  as  we  shall  see,  the  common  law 
is  out  against  the  institution,  with  its  thunders  of  con 
demnation,  and  the  lightning  of  its  wrath.  We  have 
the  testimony  of  southern  statesmen  themselves,  that 
slavery  has  no  enactments  on  which  to  stand.  John 
C.  Calhoun,  my  opponent's  model  statesman,  says: 

"  They  were  brought  here  as  slaves,  sold  as  slaves,  and 
held  as  slaves,  long  before  any  enactment  made  them  slaves. 
1  even  doubt  whether  there  is  a  single  State  in  the  South  that 
ever  enacted  them  to  be  slaves.  There  are  hundreds  of  acts 
that  recognize  and  regulate  them  as  such,  but  none,  I  appre 
hend,  that  undertake  to  create  them  slaves.  Master  and 
slave  are  constantly  recognized  as  preexisting  relations/' — 
John  C.  Calhoun,  Reply  to  T.  II.  Benton,  1849. 

"  No  legislative  act  of  the  Colonies  can  be  found  in  rela 
tion  to  it,"  (the  introduction  of  Slavery.)  —  See  Wheeler's 
Laic  of  Slavery,  p.  8-9 ;  Am.  Slave  Code,  p.  268. 

"  If  the  record  of  any  such  act  exists,  we  have  not  been 
able  to  find  any  trace  of  it."  —  Judge  Matthews;  Wheeler's 
Law  of  Slavery,  p.  15 ;  Am.  Slave  Code,  267. 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  61 

Senator  Mason,  of  Virginia,  objected  to  a  jury  trial 
for  fugitives,  on  the  ground  that  such  a  process  would 
require 

"  Proof  to  be  brought  forward  that  Slavery  is  established 
by  existing  laws ;"  and,  said  he,  "  it  would  be  impossible  to 
comply  with  the  requisition,  for  no  such  law  could  be  pro 
duced." —  GoodeVs  Slavery  and  Anti- Slavery,  pp.  570,  571. 

Mr.  Bayly,  M.  C.  of  Va.  agreed  with  him. 

Senators  Douglas  and  Toombs,  in  the  debate  on  the 
Nebraska  Bill,  contended  that  no  statute  was  necessary 
to  establish  slavery  in  Kansas,  because  no  statute  had 
established  it  in  any  of  the  States. 

Gen.  Stringfellow,  of  Missouri,  used  the  same  argu 
ment  in  a  letter,  in  which  he  said : 

"The  veriest  schoolboy  must  know,  as  a  matter  of  history, 
that  although  slavery  existed  in  all  the  old  States,  in  not  one 
of  them  was  a  law  .ever  enacted  to  establish  it." 

The  following  gentlemen,  namely,  Messrs.  S.  C. 
Brooks  and  John  McQueen,  of  South  Carolina,  Wil 
liam  Smith,  of  Virginia,  and  Thomas  L.  Clingman,  of 
North  Carolina,  (members  of  Congress,)  addressed  a 
joint-letter  to  General  Stringfellow,  strongly  com 
mending  his  statements. 

The  Southern  doctrine  all  through  is,  that  slavery 
is  a  natural  condition — a  creature  of  natural  laws — that 
your  tenure  to  your  slave  is  the  same  as  to  your  horse, 
— because  you  can  catch  him ;  that  you  hold  him  by 
virtue  of  conquest  alone ;  that  you  drive  him  into  your 
field  as  you  drive  your  ox, — because  you  have  broken 
him  and  can  manage  him.  The  legislature  has  given 
you  no  promise  to  put  him  in  your  hands  or  to  make 
6 


62  NEGATIVE,   I. 

him  work.  The  legislature  never  stands  behind  him 
driving  him  up  to  his  work.  It  has  only  stood  by  and 
enabled  you  to  lay  your  hands  upon  him  and  make 
him  a  slave,  never  enacting  a  law  giving  you  the  legal 
right  to  do  it,  but  basely  allowing  you  to  catch  him  if 
you  can.  So  that,  gentlemen,  American  slavery  has 
not,  for  its  support,  even  that  shabby  notion  of  law 
that  we  call  legislation.  No  legislature  has  yet  dared 
to  defy  Heaven  by  passing  an  act  to  condemn  a  free 
man  to  slavery. 

But  even  if  it  had,  it  would  not  help  the  case.  For 
let  me  tell  you  that  everything  cannot  be  framed  into 
law.  Law  has  a  character  of  its  own.  Certain  elements 
enter  into  it ;  and  whatever  enactments  lack  these  ele 
ments  are  no  laws  at  all.  They  are  not  bad  law,  but 
they  are  no  law —  are  null  and  void,  and  are  oftentimes 
conspiracies  against  law.  An  enactment,  to  have  the 
authority  and  force  of  law,  must  be  founded  in  justice 
and  reason  —  must  draw  its  life  principles  from  the 
government  of  God  —  must  grow  out  of  the  nature  of 
man  —  must  bear  relation  to  the  Divine  government 
and  come  into  harmony  with  it.  The  mere  votes  of  a 
legislature  can  no  more  make  a  law  than  they  can  make 
a  God,  unless  those  votes  are  cast  for  the  development 
and  manifestation  and  revelation  of  a  law  that  God 
Almighty  wove  into  the  structure  of  the  universe  at  the 
beginning. 

Suppose,  gentlemen,  (this  is  an  abstract  argument, 
but  you  will  see  the  sweep  of  it  in  a  moment)  —  sup 
pose,  if  you  please,  that  a  company  of  ten  thousand 
natural  philosophers  should  get  together,  and  undertake 
to  legislate  that  water  should  cease  to  run  down-hill 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  63 

and  hereafter  shall  run  up-hill ;  suppose  they  should 
solemnly  vote  that  this  should  be  a  law  of  nature  — 
that  the  brooks  should  turn  round,  that  the  streams 
should  run  up  towards  their  fountain  —  would  the 
streams  obey  them  ?  or  would  they  laugh  on  in  their 
course  and  disregard  them? 

Suppose  all  the  mathematicians  in  the  world  should 
gather  themselves  together,  and  enact,  as  a  law  of 
mathematics,  that  instead  of  twice  two  making  just  four, 
it  should  make  just  four  and  a  half  —  would  that  make 
it  a  law  ?  would  that  make  it  a  rule  in  mathematics  ? 
Every  boy  that  could  count  his  fingers  would  tell  you 
when  the  matter  was  proposed  to  him,  "  Let  all  the  mathe 
maticians  in  God's  world  declare  that  this  is  law,  I  have 
only  to  count  my  fingers  to  prove  that  it  is  not  true,  and 
does  not  govern  the  case,  and  therefore  cannot  be  law." 
Now  for  the  application :  God  inscribed  upon  man's  fore 
front  the  law  of  self-ownership  as  clearly  and  distinctly 
as  he  revealed  the  fact  that  twice  two  makes  four.  He 
gave  each  man  two  hands  and  one  head :  and  if  all  the 
legislatures  to  be  gathered  together  on  earth,  should 
legislate  that  a  man  should  own  two  dozen  hands  and 
one  dozen  heads,  the  law  of  God  stands  forever  revealed 
against  them ;  and  instead  of  such  an  enactment  being 
law,  it  is  a  villanous  legislative  conspiracy  against  law, 
and  deserves  no  other  name.  So  that,  were  you  able, 
even,  to  find  enactments  in  favor  of  the  institution  of 
American  slavery — were  you  able  to  find  enactments  in 
favor  of  murder,  of  robbery,  of  adultery,  of  any  crime 
that  I  could  name  —  you  would  not  feel  bound  to  bow 
down  to  these  crimes,  because  of  these  enactments,  but 
would  say  that  you  had  come  into  a  land  of  legislative 


64  NEGATIVE,   I. 

criminals,  and  that  what  they,  enacted  was  not  law,  but 
multiform  crime,  stealing  the  sacred  garb  of  law,  under 
which  to  hide  its  villany. 

Now,  gentlemen,  to  prove  to  you  that  I  have  not 
been  talking  mere  fanaticism  —  that  the  principle 
which  I  have  laid  down  is  the  principle  sanctioned  by 
all  legal  writers  of  any  note,  allow  me  to  quote  a  few 
authorities : 

"  The  law  of  nature  is  that  which  God,  at  man's  creation, 
infused  into  him,  for  his  preservation  and  direction,  and  this 
is  an  eternal  law,  and  may  not  be  changed/' — 2  Shep.  Air.-, 
also  Jac.  Law  Diet. 

"  Of  law  no  less  can  be  acknowledged,  than  that  her  seat 
is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice  the  harmony  of  the  world. 
All  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage;  the  least  as 
feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as  not  exempted  from  her 
power." — Hooker. 

11  This  law  of  nature  being  coeval  with  mankind,  and  dic 
tated  by  God  himself,  is  of  course  superior  in  obligation  to 
any  other.  It  is  binding  over  all  the  globe,  in  all  countries, 
and  at  all  times;  no  human  laws  are  of  any  validity,  if  con 
trary  to  this  ;  and  such  of  them  as  are  valid,  derive  all  their 
force,  and  all  their  authority,  mediately,  or  immediately,  from 
this  original." — Blackstone,  Vol.  1,  p.  41. 

"  Jurisprudence  is  the  science  of  what  is  just  and  unjust." 
— Justinian. 

"The  primary  and  principal  objects  of  the  law  are  rights 
and  wrongs." — Blackstone. 

"  Justice  is  the  constant  and  perpetual  disposition  to  render 
to  every  man  his  due." — Justinian. 

"  The  precepts  of  the  law  are  to  live  honestly;  to  hurt  no 
one ;  to  give  to  every  one  his  due." — Justinian  &  JBlackstone. 

"LAW.  The  rule  and  bond  of  men's  actions;  or  it  is  a 
rule  for  the  well  governing  of  civil  society,  to  give  to  every 
man  that  which  doth  belong  to  him." — Jacob's  Law  Dic 
tionary. 

"All  laws  derive  their  force  from  the  law  of  nature;  and 
those  which  do  not,  are  accounted  as  no  laws." — Fortescue, 
Jac.  Law  Diet. 


BYABRAMPRYNE."  65 

"  No  law  will  make  a  construction  to  do  wrong;  and  there 
are  some  things  which  the  law  favors,  and  some  it  dislikes; 
it  favoreth  those  things  that  come  from  the  order  of  nature." 
— 1  Inst.  183,  197.— Jac.  Law  Diet. 

"  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hobart  has  also  advanced,  that  even 
an  act  of  Parliament  made  against  natural  justige,  as  to  make 
a  man  judge  in  his  own  cause,  is  void  in  itself,  for  jura  na- 
turce  sunt  immutabilia,  and  they  are  leyes  legum" — (the  laws 
of  nature  are  immutable  —  they  are  the  laws  of  laws.) — 
Hob.  87. 

"Those  human  laws  that  annex  a  punishment  to  murder, 
do  not  at  all  increase  its  moral  guilt,  or  superadd  any  fresh 
obligation  in  the  foruni  of  conscience  to  abstain  from  its  per 
petration.  Nay,  if  any  human  law  should  allow  or  enjoin  us 
to  commit  it,  we  are  bound  to  transgress  that  human  law,  or 
else  we  must  offend  both  the  natural  and  the  divine." — 
Blackstone,  Vol.  1,  p.  42,  43. 

"Those  rights  then  which  God  and  nature  have  estab 
lished,  and  are  therefore  called  natural  rights,  such  as  are 
life  and  liberty,  need  not  the  aid  of  human  laws  to  be  more 
effectually  invested  in  every  man  than  they  are;  neither  do 
they  receive  any  additional  strength  when  declared  by  the 
municipal  laws  to  be  inviolable.  On  the  contrary,  no  human 
legislature  has  power  to  abridge  or  destroy  them,  unless  the 
owner  shall  himself  commit  some  act  that  amounts  to  a  for 
feiture."—  Blackstone,  Vol.  1,  p.  54. 

"Now  we  must  entirely  take  leave  of  our  senses,  ere  we 
can  suppose  that  law  and  justice  have  no  foundation  in  na 
ture,  and  rely  merely  on  the  transient  opinions  of  men." — 
Same,  B.  1,  p.  56-57. 

"Whatever  is  just  is  always  the  true  law;  nor  can  this 
true  law  either  be  originated  or  abrogated  by  any  written  en 
actments." — Same,  B.  2,  p.  83. 

"It  appears  in  our  books,  that  in  many  casQS,  the  common 
law  will  control  acts  of  parliament,  and  sometimes  adjudge 
them  to  be  utterly  void ;  for  when  an  act  of  parliament  is 
against  common  right  or  reason,  the  common  law  will  control 
it,  and  adjudge  such  act  to  be  void." — Coke,  in  Bonham's 
case;  4  Cuke's  Hep.,  Part  8,  p.  118. 

"  If  the  will  of  the  people,  the  decrees  of  the  senate,  the 
adjudications  of  magistrates,  were  sufficient  to  establish  just- 

6* 


66  NEGATIVE,    I. 

ice,  the  only  question  would  be  how  to  gain  suffrages,  and  to 
win  over  the  votes  of  the  majority,  in  order  that  corruption 
and  spoliation,  and  the  falsification  of  wills,  should  become 
lawful.  But  if  the  opinions  and  suffrages  of  foolish  men  had 
sufficient  weight  to  outbalance  the  nature  of  things,  might 
they  not  determine  among  them,  that  what  is  essentially  bad 
and  pernicious  should  henceforth  pass  for  good  and  benefi 
cial  ?  Or  why  should  not  a  law,  able  to  enforce  injustice, 
take  the  place  of  equity  ?  Would  not  this  same  law  be  able 
to  change  evil  into  good,  and  good  into  evil?" — Cicero. 

I  would,  were  it  important,  give  you  multiplied 
quotations  upon  this  point. 

Have  I  to  prove  that  American  slavery  is  not  in 
harmony  with  the  law  of  nature,  but  contravenes  the 
law  of  nature  ?  No ;  I  shall  not  stop  for  such  an 
argument  to-night.  But  let  us  look  for  a  moment  tp 
see  how  it  stands  in  the  light  of  statutes. 

In  1772,  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  of  Great  Britain 
decided  that  no  slave  could  be  held  under  the  English 
Constitution.  This  was  four  years  before  the  Declara 
tion  of  American  Independence.  That  decision  was 
equally  of  binding  force  wherever  the  British  Constitu 
tion  bore  sway,  and  applied  to  the  colonies  as  well  as 
to  the  mother  country,  for  their  charters  were  all 
subordinate  to  the  laws  of  England.  It  consequently 
settled  the  question  that,  in  the  American  colonies, 
there  could  no  more  be  legal  slavery  than  in  Great 
Britain  itself.  After  the  decision  of  Lord  Mansfield, 
in  1772,  the  next  great  legal  step  that  swept  slavery 
from  the  country,  was  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence. 

Gentlemen,  when  the  old  bell  that  now  stands, 
cracked,  in  Independence  Hall — an  object  of  reverence 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  67 

to  every  American  patriot — rang  out  upon  the  startled 
air  her  first  peal  after  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence,  the  language  to  the  nation  was  that  in 
scribed  upon  her  own  form,  "  Proclaim  liberty  through 
out  all  the  land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof."  And 
that  sentiment  was  put  in  other  language  into  the 
Declaration  itself;  when  it  declared  all  men  —  not  all 
white  men — not  all  men  of  a  certain  color,  but  all  men 
—  to  be  entitled  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  That  Declaration,  I  take  it,  is  the  basis, 
the  corner-stone  of  all  American  law — the  constitution 
of  the  American  Constitution  —  and  lies  at  the  founda 
tion  of  everything  that  comes  after  in  the  form  of  an 
organized  and  legislating  government ;  and  that  De 
claration  swept  away  every  legal  vestige  of  American 
slavery  from  the  whole  breadth  of  the  land. 

I  shall  be  answered,  perhaps,  that  slavery  continued 
to  exist  after  that —  that  it  still  exists.  It  does.  In 
the  State  of  New  York  we  had  a  few  months  ago  a 
"Maine  liquor  law,"  making  illegal  the  sale  of  in 
toxicating  drinks  anywhere  in  the  State.  Yet  the  sale 
went  on.  But  did  that  fact  make  the  sale  legal  ?  or 
did  it  only  show  that  there  was  a  power  sustaining  the 
sale  that  could  override  the  law?  So,  when  the  De 
claration  of  American  Independence  swept  away  every 
legal  foundation  for  slavery,  the  fact  of  its  continued 
existence  no  more  proves  its  legality  than  the  fact  of  a 
continued  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  in  spite  of  a 
"Maine  Law,"  proves  the  legality  of  such  sale. 
Because  all  thieves  are  not  caught  and  punished,  is 
theft  therefore  lawful  ? 

So  far  as  this  argument  is  concerned,  then,  I  shall 


68  NEGATIVE,     I. 

—  as  my  opponent  has  declared  himself  a  friend  of  law 
and  order  and  government,  and  in  favor  of  sustaining 
the  law — call  upon  him  to  come  up  with  me  to  the 
support  of  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence 

—  the  basis  of  American  law  ;  I  shall  ask  his  aid  in  the 
effort  to  carry  it  out  strictly  in  the  country  and  proclaim, 
in  the  language  of  the  old  bell,  "  liberty  throughout  all 
the  land  and  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

But  another  step  is  necessary  in  this  argument 
against  the  legal  existence  of  slavery.  I  take  my 
friend  on  his  own  premises.  He  is  in  favor  of  the  law 
and  the  Constitution ;  so  am  I,  and  I  shall  spend  a  few 
moments  in  proving  to  him  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  itself  is  a  document  all  instinct  with 
Abolitionism  from  beginning  to  end,  and  that  in  harmony 
with  that  Constitution  and  in  the  carrying  out  of  its 
principles,  every  slave  in  this  nation  should  be  set  free. 
And  when  I  shall  have  proved  this,  I  shall  be  sure  to 
have  him  on  my  side ;  for  he  is  in  favor  of  the  law  and 
in  favor  of  the  Constitution. 

I  will  only  start  this  argument  to-night  by  quoting 
the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
• — its  own  declaration  of  its  intention  and  its  purposes. 
The  preamble  of  any  law  is  the  declaration  of  its  inten 
tion,  as  made  by  the  legislators  themselves — its  breadth 
and  scope,  and  width  and  design,  as  mapped  out  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  frame  it.  And  I  take  it  that  the 
preamble  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  to 
be  regarded  by  lawyers,  as  well  as  by  all  men  of  com 
mon  sense,  as  the  statement  made  by  the  adopters  of 
that  Constitution,  of  what  they  intended  to  do  with  it 
and  by  it.  On  this  point  I  quote  authorities : 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  69 

Chief-Justice  Jay  regards  the  Preamble  of  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  an  authoritative  guide  to  a  correct 
interpretation  of  that  instrument. — 2  Dallas,  419. 

Story  says,  "  The  importance  of  examining  the  preamble, 
for  the  purpose  of  expounding  the  language  of  a  statute, 
has  been  long  felt,  and  universally  conceded  in  all  juridical 
discussions.  Jt  is  an  admitted  maxim  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  the  administration  of  justice,  that  the  preamble  of  a  sta 
tute  is  a  key  to  open  the  mind  of  the  makers,  as  to  the  mis 
chiefs  which  are  to  be  remedied,  and  the  objects  which  are 
to  be  accomplished  by  the  provisions  of  the  statute.  We 
find  it  laid  down  in  some  of  our  earliest  authorities  in  the 
common  law,  and  civilians  are  accustomed  to  a  similar  ex 
pression,  cessante  legis  pramio,  cessat  et  ipsa  lex.  (The  pre 
amble  of  the  law  ceasing,  the  law  itself  also  ceases.)  Pro 
bably  it  has  a  foundation  in  the  exposition  of  every  code  of 
written  law,  from  the  universal  principle  of  interpretation, 
that  the  will  and  intention  of  the  legislature  is  to  be  regarded 
and  followed.  It  is  properly  resorted  to  where  doubts  or 
ambiguities  arise  upon  the  words  of  the  enacting  part;  for  if 
they  are  clear  and  unambiguous,  there  seems  little  room  for 
interpretation,  except  in  cases  leading  to  an  absurdity,  or  to 
a  direct  overthrow  of  the  intention  expressed  in  the  preamble. 

"  There  does  not  seem  any  reason  why,  in  a  fundamental 
law  or  constitution  of  government,  an  equal  attention  should 
not  be  given  to  the  intention  of  the  framers,  as  expressed  in 
the  preamble.  And  accordingly  we  find  that  it  has  been 
constantly  referred  to  by  statesmen  and  jurists  to  aid  them 
in  the  exposition  of  its  provisions." — 1  Story's  Comm.  on 
Const.,  pp.  443-4. 

That  preamble  reads  thus  : 

"  "We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  ensure  domestic  tran 
quillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the  gene 
ral  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves 
and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution 
for  the  United  States  of  America." 

Now  I  shall  assume  that  the  framers  of  the  Consti- 


70  NEGATIVE,   I. 

tution  did  not  lie  —  that,  when  they  stated  that  their 
object  was  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish 
justice,  to  promote  the  general  welfare,  to  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty,  they  told  the  truth.  If  this  be  the 
fact,  then,  that  preamble  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  decla 
ration  that  the  Constitution  is  against  slavery. 

One  of  their  objects  was  "  to  form  a  more  perfect 
union."  What  endangers  the  Union?  What  has  dis 
turbed  the  Union  ?  What  has  rocked  and  heaved  the 
Union  from  Cape  Sable  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River,  and  from  the  stormy  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
to  the  golden  sands  of  California  ?  What  but  the  in 
troduction  and  determined  perpetuation  among  us  of 
the  gigantic  wrong  of  American  slavery  ?  I  ask,  shall 
this  Union  be  made  more  perfect  until  it  shall  cease  to 
stand  rocking  and  heaving,  as  it  does,  on  the  bosom  of 
the  poor  slave?  A  Union  that  is  held  together  by 
planting  the  iron  heel  of  the  National  administration 
on  the  bosom  of  four  million  innocent  men — who  ex 
pects  such  a  Union  to  be  tranquil  ?  Who  expects  it  to 
rest  a  moment  ?  God,  breathing  into  the  heart  of  hu 
manity  the  nobler  and  higher  impulses  of  our  common 
nature,  demands  of  every  man  living  under  such  a 
Union  that  he  shall  rock  it  from  centre  to  circumfe 
rence  until  it  shall  cease  to  rest  upon  the  bosom  of  four 
million  crushed  slaves.  The  humanity  of  the  age  is 
sure  to  secure  the  freedom  of  these  slaves,  either 
through  the  union  of  these  States  or  over  the  union  of 
these  States.  Though  I  am  a  friend  to  the  Union  — 
though  I  would  not  have  the  South  leave  the  Union, 
but  would  grapple  her  to  it  as  with  hooks  of  steel,  un 
til  she  shall  be  obliged  to  let  her  bondmen  go  free  and 


BYABRAMPEYNE.  71 

to  do  justice  to  the  slave — nevertheless,  I  cannot  fail 
to  see,  as  does  every  man,  that  the  disturbing  force 
which  prevents  a  perfect  union  of  these  States  is  the 
institution  of  slavery.  Abolish  it,  and  your  Union 
will  be  perfect. 

Another  object  stated  in  the  preamble  is,  "  to  estab 
lish  justice."  Justice  is  it,  that  in  God's  bright  world, 
in  the  noon  of  the  nineteenth  century,  one  man  should 
take  the  child  of  another  from  the  cradle  and  reduce 
him  to  life-long  slavery?  Justice  is  it,  that  one  man 
should  take  the  sister  of  another,  and  hold  her  upon 
the  auction  block,  and  auctioneer  off  her  beauty? 
Justice  is  it,  that  one  man  should  drive  a  hundred  of 
his  fellows  into  the  cotton-field,  in  order  that  he  him 
self  may  be  enriched  out  of  their  unpaid  toil  ?  If  that 
is  justice,  then,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  let  wild  an 
archy  commence  its  reign,  and  let  us  have  something 
else  than  that  form  of  justice.  Oh,  gentlemen,  when 
the  objects  declared  in  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  shall  be  carried  out,  and  when 
justice  shall  be  established  in  this  nation,  there  will  go 
up  a  glad  shout  to  Heaven  from  millions  of  slaves,  re 
joicing  that  the  day  of  freedom  has  at  last  dawned 
for  them. 

Another  object  stated  in  that  preamble  is  to  "  ensure 
domestic  tranquillity."  Why  is  the  South  untranquil 
now  ?  Why  dare  she  not  let  every  man  in  this  land  go 
forth,  speaking  his  free  thoughts,  over  her  hills  and 
valleys  ?  Why  would  she,  if  she  were  able,  inflict 
upon  me,  for  the  utterance  of  these  thoughts  that  1 
have  spoken,  the  direst  punishment  that  the  wrath  of 
her  citizens  could  invent.  Simply  because  she  has  an 


72  NEGATIVE,   I. 

element  in  her  society  that  renders  freedom  and  do- 
mestic  tranquillity  impossible  together ;  and  she  can 
only  secure  what  to  her  appears  to  be  quiet,  (but  which 
is,  in  fact,  but  sleeping  over  a  volcano)  by  suppressing 
freedom  of  speech,  by  crushing  out  freedom  of  debate, 
by  driving  her  John  C.  Underwoods  from  Va.,  and 
casting  out  the  book  of  Frederick  Douglass  from  Ala 
bama,  and  driving  from  her  borders  every  man  of  a 
free  and  faithful  utterance ;  and  so  long  as  this  element 
of  slavery  continues,  her  masters  will  continue  to  sleep 
with  pistols  under  their  bolsters,  and  as  they  go  out  in 
the  night  time  or  the  day,  the  ghost  of  their  own  horrid 
system  will  conjure  up  among  them  fears  and  phanta 
sies,  and  dread  of  insurrection,  thick  as  the  men  of 
Roderick  Dhu,  in  the  brake,  and  the  day  will  never 
come  when  they  will  have  domestic  tranquillity  in  the 
South,  until  slavery  be  abolished. 

Having,  in  proceeding  thus  far  with  my  argument, 
carried  with  me  the  law  and  the  Constitution,  I  shall 
ask  my  opponent  to-morrow  night,  he  being  a  law-abi 
ding  and  Constitution-loving  man,  to  make  a  speech  on 
my  side  of  the  question. 

But  I  will  not  this  evening  go  further  in  this  argu 
ment,  founded  on  the  American  Constitution,  but  turn 
ing  from  that  point,  I  will  give  my  attention  for  a  few 
moments  to  the  speech  of  my  opponent.  My  reference 
to  it  shall  be  brief,  for  my  friend  tells  me  that  he  has 
not  yet  reached  the  main  issue  —  and  I  was  aware  of 
it  without  his  telling  me.  He  being  on  the  affirmative, 
I  shall  defer  beginning  anything  like  a  serious  reply  to 
his  speeches  until  he  digs  his  way  up  within,  at  least 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  73 

some  reasonable  proximity  of  the  question  that  we  have 
come  here  to  debate. 

My  friend  has  urged  as  authority  in  support  of  sla 
very —  the  Bible.  When  he  shall  bring  forward  his 
proof,  then,  if  I  am  not  able  to  meet  it,  and  meet  it 
successfully,  I  will  give  up  my  opposition  to  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery.  But  I  am  not  to  be  drawn  into  the 
ingeniously  set  trap  of  making  a  negative  argument 
against  a  position  which  he  simply  declares,  and  does 
not  deign  to  argue.  Let  him  give  us  his  argument,  and 
then,  if  I  do  not  meet  it,  you  may  say  that  I  am  unable 
to  do  so.  He  tells  us  that  slavery  has  always  existed. 
Sad  as  it  may  be  to  confess  it,  I  have  not  the  slightest 
disposition  to  deny  it.  So,  since  the  day  when  Cain 
and  Abel  met  unfortunately  by  the  altar  of  God,  and 
Cain  raised  his  club  and  slew  his  brother,  murder  has 
always  existed.  But  does  that  make  it  right  ? 

Because  a  hoary  wrong  has,  with  stern  and  iron 
tread,  walked  down  the  line  of  centuries,  crushing  mil 
lions  under  its  ponderous  heel,  does  length  of  time 
baptize  it  with  sacredness,  make  it  innocent,  and  give 
it  sanctity  ?  or  does  it  add  by  every  revolving  century 
and  each  rolling  year  and  each  diurnal  revolution  of 
the  earth,  the  deeper  damnation  of  a  deeper  condemna 
tion  to  every  age  and  hour  of  its  outrageous  existence  ! 

Slavery  is  defended  by  the  length  of  time  which  it 
has  existed.  Ay  !  and  that  length  of  time  has  projected 
the  groan  of  humanity  in  one  long  wail  down  the  stream 
of  centuries,  and  it  has  gone  up  to  God  evermore  cry 
ing  for  vengeance  upon  oppressors  and  the  outragers 
of  the  poor ;  and  though  men  may,  by  time,  have  be 
come  familiar  with  the  crime,  in  Heaven's  eye,  it  has 
7 


74  NEGATIVE,    I. 

not  bated  a  jot  nor  tittle  of  its  frightful  mien  since  its 
introduction  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

My  friend  refers  to  Abraham  as  a  slaveholder. 
When  he  tries  to  prove  it  I  will  meet  his  argument. 
He  tells  you  that  Babylon  and  Egypt  were  built  by 
slaves.  Yes  !  and  when  God  Almighty,  with  the  out 
stretched  arm  of  his  vengeance,  thundered  on  Babylon 
in  her  iniquity,  one  of  the  reasons  that  the  prophet 
gives  why  it  was  done,  was  that  she  dealt  in  "  slaves  and 
the  souls  of  men."  And  Egypt  now  lies  buried  under 
the  ruins  of  the  same  greatness  which  she  builded  by 
oppression,  and  the  retributive  waves  of  ages  of  ven 
geance  have  nearly  buried  her  gigantic  works  of  art  built 
by  slaves.  God  manifested  his  wrath  for  her  slavery, 
when  he  once  threw  her  king  and  his  slave-catching  hosts 
in  the  waves  of  the  Red  Sea,  where  "  the  horse  and  his 
rider"  perished  together ! 

My  opponent  tells  us  that  slaves  were  held  and  are 
still  held  in  Africa.  The  poor  African,  he  tells  us, 
after  two  hundred  years  of  amelioration  and  cultiva 
tion  under  Southern  piety,  and  plantation  godliness,  is 
not  yet  fit  for  freedom.  Yet  he  refers  us  to  the 
African  in  his  darkness  and  heathenism  centuries  back 
as  a  model  for  us :  we  are  to  hold  slaves  because 
he  did ! 

I  pass  over  many  of  the  points  which  I  have  noted, 
bearing  on  this  Bible  argument,  because  I  shall  pursue 
this  subject  further  to-morrow  evening. 

The  last  half  nearly  of  my  friend's  speech  was  taken 
up  with  abusing  —  no,  I  will  not  use  that  word  —  with 
saying  hard  things  of  Northern  men  and  Northern 
society.  It  is  unfortunate  that  in  some  of  these  hard 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  75 

things  I  shall  be  compelled  to  partly  join  with  him. 
Of  the  scorn  and  indignation  which  he  projects  at 
New  England  slave-holders  and  slave-owners,  and  New 
York  slave-holders  and  slave-traders,  I  take,  so  far  as 
I  am  concerned  for  those  States,  my  full  share.  But 
if  New  England  was  hypocritical  in  buying  slaves  and 
working  slaves  —  if  New  York  is  to  be  hooted  at  and 
scorned  for  having  been  a  slave-dealing  and  a  slave- 
holding  State  a  hundred  years  ago  —  what  is  to  be 
said  of  Tennessee,  that  continues  the  practice  in  the 
noon  of  the  nineteenth  century.  If  New  England  and 
New  York  were  hypocritical  in  stealing  men  from 
Africa  to  make  them  slaves,  and  selling  them  at  the 
South,  what  has  become  of  the  old  adage,  that  the 
"partaker  is  as  bad  as  the  thief."  The  man  who  buys 
stolen  goods,  knowing  them  to  be  stolen,  lacking  the 
enterprise  and  the  courage  to  steal  them  himself,  gets 
them  into  his  hands  in  a  lazier,  but  not  a  nobler  way. 

If  Northern  men  have  bowed  in  base  and  toadying 
subserviency  to  the  spirit  of  villanous  politics,  the 
reason  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  national 
capitol  is  on  slave-holding  territory;  and  the  vilest 
slave-holding  spirit,  demoralizing  as  it  does  whatever 
it  touches,  has  oftentimes  overborne  the  bulwarks  of 
Northern  virtue.  I  shall  charge  the  delinquencies  of 
Northern  men  upon  the  seductions  of  American  slavery 
as  presented  by  the  South ;  so, 

"Lay  on,  Macduff, 
And—  " 

I  will  not  complete  the  sentence. 

By  every  argument  which  proves  that  Northern  men 
have  bowed  in  cringing  subserviency  to  American 


76  NEGATIVE,    I.  —  BY    ABRAM    PRYNE. 

slavery,  you  prove  that  slavery  is  tlie  spirit  of  ruffian 
tyranny,  and  holds  such  sway  with  its  instrumentalities, 
as  to  destroy  the  virtue  of  such  Northern  men  as  come 
under  its  power.  If  Northern  men  have  ever  been 
sneaks,  slavery  has  made  them  so.  If  Northern  men 
have  shown  themselves  lacking  in  virtue  when  they  got 
to  Congress,  it  was  after  they  had  been  subjected  to 
the  corrupt  influences  with  which  they  are  surrounded 
by  the  South. 

My  friend  tells  us  —  of  course  it  is  of  no  account 
to  the  argument  —  that  some  Northern  Abolitionists 
are  so  mean  that  they  would  steal  the  pewter  ornament 
off  the  cane-head  of  the  negro.  Let  me  retort  that 
the  law  of  the  South  is  so  tyrannical  that  it  permits 
the  slave-holder  to  steal  the  negro,  cane,  and  all 

Ladies  and  gentlemen  !  I  thank  you  that  you  have 
given  me,  an  unknown  stranger,  a  patient  hearing  and 
a  cordial  reception  ;  and  I  hope  by  to-morrow  night  my 
opponent  will  reach  the  heart  of  this  question,  and 
lead  the  way,  so  that  the  discussion  may  be  made 
worthy  of  the  audience,  and  worthy  of  the  ponderous 
gravity  of  the  subject  under  debate. 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 
AFFIRMATIVE,  II.  —  BY  W.  G.  BROWNLO  TV 

RESPECTED  AUDITORS  !  It  is  usual,  if  it  is  not  even 
an  established  rule  in  all  scholastic  discussions,  that 
the  respondent  shall  confine  himself  to  the  arguments 
of  the  affirmant,  on  whom  the  onus  probandi  rests. 
However,  I  am  willing  to  overlook  the  aberrations 
observable  in  the  truly  desultory  remarks  of  my  worthy 
friend  on  yesterday  evening,  and  for  two  good  and 
sufficient  reasons.  First,  in  our  correspondence,  we 
agreed  upon  the  largest  liberty,  in  the  way  of  a  margin ; 
and  next,  introductory  speeches  are  usually  more 
general  than  special  in  their  character.  I  may  be 
allowed  to  add,  that  not  having  been  demolished  by 
the  rejoinder,  I  have  no  cause  to  repine.  This  I 
venture  to  say,  without  assuming  the  office  of  umpire 
in  this  debate.  I  hope  the  gentleman  has  recovered 
his  composure  after  the  discussion  of  yesterday  even 
ing.  And  if  the  joints  of  his  armor  crack  under  the 
power  of  the  truth  to-night,  it  shall  not  be  my  fault; 
nor  his :  but  the  fault  of  the  cause  he  advocates. 

In  my  remarks  to-night  I  aim  to  consult  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  to  see  whether  or  not  they  sustain  or  con 
demn  the  institution  of  slavery.  The  opposers  of 
slavery  profess  to  be  governed  alone  by  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible,  in  their  war  upon  the  institution.  My 
7*  (77) 


78  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

friend  and  competitor,  being  a  Protestant  minister, 
will  endorse  what  the  Bible  teaches :  we  may  differ 
when  we  corne  to  interpret  its  teachings,  and  doubtless 
will,  upon  this  grave  subject ! 

It  is  vain  to  look  to  Christ  or  any  of  his  Apostles 
to  justify  the  blasphemous  perversions  of  the  word  of 
God,  continually  paraded  before  the  world  by  those 
graceless  agitators  known  as  Abolitionists.  Although 
slavery  in  its  most  revolting  forms  was  everywhere 
visible  around  them,  no  visionary  notions  of  piety,  or 
mad  schemes  of  philanthropy,  ever  tempted  either 
Christ  or  one  of  his  Apostles  to  gainsay  the  LAW,  even 
to  mitigate  the  cruel  severity  of  the  slavery  system 
then  existing.  On  the  contrary,  finding  slavery  esta 
blished  by  law,  as  well  as  an  inevitable  and  necessary 
consequence,  growing  out  of  the  condition  of  human 
society,  their  efforts  were  to  sustain  the  institution. 
Hence  St.  Paul  actually  apprehended  a  "fugitive 
slave,"  and  sent  him  home  to  his  lawful  owner,  and 
earthly  master  ! 

I  shall  first  appeal  to  the  authority  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment  Scriptures,  before  I  appeal  to  the  irresistible 
authority  of  the  New  Testament,  where  we  learn  that 
slavery  existed  in  the  earliest  days  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  that  both  masters  and  slaves  were  members 
of  the  same  Christian  congregations.  Slavery  was  an 
institution  of  the  State,  in  the  Roman  empire,  just  as 
it  is  in  the  Southern  States  of  this  Confederacy ;  and 
the  inspired  Apostles,  and  first  teachers  of  Christianity 
did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  denounce  it,  if,  indeed,  they 
felt  the  least  opposition  to  it  —  a  thing  I  utterly  deny. 

Listen  to  me  while  I  read  you  some  truly  sensible 
passages  from  the  Bible : 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  79 

"And  he  said,  I  am  Abraham's  servant." — Gen.  xxiv  :  34. 

"And  there  was  of  the  house  of  Saul  a  servant,  whose 
name  was  Ziba;  and  when  they  had  called  him  unto  David, 
the  king  said  unto  him,  Art  thou  Ziba  ?  And  he  said,  Thy 
servant  is  lie." — 2  Sam.  ix  :  2. 

"Then  the  king  called  to  Ziba,  Saul's  servant,  and  said 
unto  him,  I  have  given  unto  thy  master's  son  all  that  per 
tained  to  Saul,  and  to  all  his  house." — Verse  9th. 

"  Thou,  therefore,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy  servants,  shall  till 
the  land  for  him,  and  thou  shall  bring  in  the  fruits,  that  thy 
master's  son  may  have  food  to  eat,  &c.  Now  Ziba  has  fifteen 
sons  and  TWENTY  SERVANTS." — Verse  10th. 

"  I  got  my  servants  and  maidens,  and  had  servants  born  in 
my  house;  also,  I  had  great  possessions  of  great  and  small 
cattle,  above  all  that  were  in  Jerusalem  before  me." — Ecdes. 
ii:7. 

"And  he  said,  Hagar,  Sarai's  maid,  whence  earnest  thou? 
And  she  said,  I  flee  from  the  face  of  my  mistress  Sarai." — 
Gen.  xvi :  8. 

"  And  the  Angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  her,  Return  to  thy 
mistress,  and  submit  thyself  to  her  hands." — Verse  9th. 

I  have  but  few  comments  to  offer  upon  these  passages 
from  Holy  Writ;  still,  I  wish  to  impress  upon  your 
minds  one  or  two  points  which  you  may  overlook. 
First,  then,  one  individual  acknowledges  himself  to  be 
the  owner  of  20  slaves  !  Another  was  raising  slaves — 
acknowledges  that  he  was  a  regular  slave  breeder — was 
having  them  born  in  his  house,  no  doubt  intending  them 
for  the  best  market  he  could  find  —  and  all  this,  mark 
you,  was  under  the  sanction  of  the  Almighty !  And 
last,  but  not  least,  the  Angel  of  Crod  arrested  a  fugitive 
slave  and  forced  her  to  return  to  her  lawful  owner. 
High  authority  this,  for  apprehending  runaway  negroes  ! 
And  when  I  tell  you,  as  I  now  do,  in  all  candor,  that 
the  Angel  of  God,  on  this  occasion,  was  acting  in  tho 
capacity  of  a  United  States  Marshal,  under  the  then 


80  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

existing  fugitive  slave  laws  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
arresting  a  fugitive  slave,  the  anti-slavery  portion  of 
you,  either  think  me  crazy,  or  guilty  of  a  profanation 
of  sacred  things  ! 

In   reference   to   lad  servants,  we   read  in   Prov. 
xxix  :  19 — 

"A  servant  will  not  be  corrected  by  words;  for  though  he 
understand,  he  will  not  answer." 

Here  we  are  taught  that  a  servant  will  not  be  corrected 
by  words,  and  the  inference  is,  that  stripes  must  be 
inflicted.  The  Scriptures  look  to  the  correction  of 
servants,  and  really  enjoin  it,  as  they  do  in  the  case  of 
children.  I  esteem  it  the  duty  of  Christian  masters  to 
feed  and  clothe  their  negroes  well — to  work  them  well, 
that  is,  constantly,  but  in  moderation — and  in  cases  of 
disobedience,  to  whip  well.  And  upon  this  principle 
we  proceed  in  the  South  !  I  may  be  inquired  of  to  say 
whether  I  approve  the  cruelty  exercised  by  masters 
and  overseers  in  the  South,  and  the  starvation  and 
nakedness  displayed  there  —  and  whether  or  not  the 
Scriptures  tolerate  this  !  I  have  to  say  in  reply,  that 
this  cruelty,  starvation,  and  nakedness,  does  not  exist 
in  the  South,  but  in  the  disordered  imaginations  of 
Abolition  preachers,  travellers,  and  slanderers,  who 
pass  hurriedly  through  the  South,  getting  up  materials 
for  book-making. 

Born  and  raised  in  the  South,  I  have  lived  there  a 
half  a  century  —  I  have  travelled  through  all  the 
Southern  States  but  Florida  and  Texas,  and  to  this 
good  day  I  have  never  seen  a  negro  whipped,  hanged, 
or  burned  at  the  stake.  I  have  seen  negro  children 


BY  \V.   G.   BROWNLOW.  81 

whipped,  for  disobedience,  just  as  I  have  seen  the  -white 
children  corrected  on  the  same  premises  !  I  have  seen 
many  negroes  who  deserved  basting  for  their  disobedi 
ence  and  bad  conduct.  Madam  Stowe,  in  one  brief 
tour  through  the  South,  was  annoyed  with  the  appalling- 
vocabulary  of  "cruel  overseer,"  "unfeeling  driver," 
"clanking  chains,"  &c.,  but  I,  who  have  travelled 
through  these  States  for  thirty  years,  visiting  cotton 
and  sugar  plantations,  have  never  met  with  anything 
of  the  kind ! 

In  the  book  of  Joel  iii  :  8,  the  slave  trade  is  even 
recognized  as  of  Divine  authority : 

"And  I  will  sell  your  sons  and  your  daughters  into  the 
land  of  the  children  of  Judah,  and  they  shall  sell  them  to 
the  Sabeans,  to  the  people  far  off;  FOE  THE  LORD  HATH 
SPOKEN  IT  I" 

DR.  CLARKE  informs  us  in  his  comments  on  this 
passage,  that  as  many  as  thirty  thousand  of  these 
people  were  sold  into  bondage — first  to  the  children  of 
Judah,  and  then  to  the  Sabeans,  or  Arabs,  a  people 
far  off!  The  geography  of  the  country  shows  that  they 
removed  them  about  as  far  from  their  kindred  and 
friends,  as  we  do  our  negroes  when  we  drive  them  from 
Virginia  and  the  Oarolinas,  to  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
and  Louisiana  ! 

But  I  now  appeal  to  the  irresistible  authority  of  the 
New  Testament  : 

"  Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein  he  was 
called.  Art  thou  called,  being  a  servant  ?  Care  not  for  it ; 
but  if  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it  rather.  For  he  that 
is  called  in  the  Lord,  being  a  servant,  is  the  Lord's  freeman ; 


82  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

likewise  also  he  that  is  called,  being  free,  is  Christ's  servant." 
1  Cor.  vii :  20-22. 

11  Servants,  be  obedient  them  that  are  your  masters  accord 
ing  to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling,  in  singleness  of 
your  heart,  as  unto  Christ,  Not  with  eye-serviee,  as  rnen- 
pleasers;  but  as  the  servants  of  Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God 
from  the  heart.  With  good-will  doing  service,  as  to  the 
Lord,  and  not  to  men  :  knowing  that  whatsoever  good  thing 
any  man  doeth,  the  same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord,  whether 
he  be  bond  or  free.  And,  ye  masters,  do  the  same  things 
unto  them,  forbearing  threatening :  knowing  that  your  Master 
also  is  in  heaven  :  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with 
him." —  Eph.  vi :  5-9. 

"  Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters  according  to 
the  flesh :  not  with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  in  sin 
gleness  of  heart,  fearing  God.  And  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it 
heartily,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men  :  knowing  that  of 
the  Lord  ye  shall  receive  the  reward  of  the  inheritance;  for 
ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ." — Col.  iii :  22-25. 

"Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal :  knowing  that  ye  also  have  a  Master  in  heaven." — Gol. 
iv:  1. 

"  Let  as  many  servants  as  are  under  the  yoke  count  their 
own  masters  worthy  of  all  honor,  that  the  name  of  God  and 
his  doctrines  be  not  blasphemed.  And  they  that  have  be 
lieving  masters,  let  them  not  despise  them,  because  they  are 
brethren ;  but  rather  to  do  them  service,  because  they  are 
faithful  and  beloved,  partakers  of  the  benefit.  These  things 
teach  and  exhort/' — 1  Tim.  vi :  1,  2. 

"  Exhort  servants  to  be  obedient  unto  their  own  masters, 
and  to  please  them  well  in  all  things ;  not  answering  again ; 
nor  purloining,  but  showing  all  good  fidelity ;  that  they  may 
adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  and  all  things." — 
Titus  ii :  9,  10. 

a  Servants,  be  subject  to  your  masters  with  all  fear;  not 
only  to  the  good  and  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward.  For 
this  is  thankworthy,  if  a  man  for  conscience  toward  God 
endure  grief,  suffering  wrongfully. " —  1  Peter  ii :  18,  19. 

I  have  but  a  few  words  of  comment  to  offer  upon 
these  passages  of  Scripture.  The  original  words  used 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  83 

by  the  Greek,  both  sacred  and  profane,  to  express 
slave — the  most  abject  condition  of  slavery — to  express 
the  absolute  owner  of  a  slave,  and  the  absolute  control 
of  a  slave  —  are  the  strongest  that  the  language  affords, 
and  are  used  in  the  passages  I  have  quoted.  If  the 
inspired  Apostles  understood  —  if  they  knew  what  they 
were  talking  about,  and  desired  to  convey  these  ideas, 
and  to  recognize  the  relations  of  master  and  slave,  they 
would  naturally  enough  employ  the  very  words  they 
used.  To  say  that  they  did  not  know  the  primary 
meaning  and  usus  loquendi  of  the  original  words,  is 
paying  them  a  compliment  I  have  no  wish  to  partici 
pate  in ! 

There  is  one  other  strong  point  I  wish  to  make  in 
this  controversy.  Christ  says  of  a  Roman  Centurion, 
upon  his  confession  to  him  that  he  held  slaves,  "  I  have 
not  seen  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel."  The  Cen 
turion,  mark  it,  was  a  Roman  Centurion,  not  a  Jew, 
and  held  slaves  under  the  Roman  law,  that  admitted  of 
enormities  and  excesses  before  which  the  worst  features 
of  "American  Slavery"  appear  but  as  tender  mercies, 
when  compared  with  their  diabolical  cruelties.  Still 
Christ,  by  this  act,  although  he  condemned  injustice 
and  cruelty,  acknowledged  and  established  the  fact 
that  a  man  could  be  a  Christian  and  yet  hold  slaves, 
even  under  the  tenor  of  the  law  that  admitted  of  so  great 
enormities.  Should  not,  therefore,  every  unbiassed 
mind  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  anti-slavery  men  of 
the  North,  who  are  no  better  than  Christ  and  his  Apos 
tles,  ought  not  to  attempt  to  exclude  Christian  Tennessee, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  &c.,  from  the  kingdoms  of  grace 
and  glory,  who  live  under,  and  hold  slaves  under  a  far 


84  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

more  human  and  Christian  law,  governing  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery ! 

But,  to  show  that  I  am  not  singular  in  my  views  of 
the  meaning  expressed  in  the  passages  quoted  —  show 
ing  that  they  express  in  one  case  slaves,  and  in  the 
other  masters  or  owners,  actually  holding  them  as 
property,  under  the  sanction  of  the  laws  of  the  State, 
I  quote  from  the  following  distinguished  authorities. 

That  great  commentator,  DR.  ADAM  CLAKKE,  on 
1  Cor.  vii.  21,  says : 

"Art  thou  converted  to  Christ  while  thou  art  a  slave  — 
the  property  of  another  person,  and  bought  with  his  money  ? 
Care  not  for  it." 

The  learned  DR.  NEANDER,  in  his  work  entitled 
"Planting  and  Training  the  Church,"  in  referring  to 
OnesimuSy  mentioned  in  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  says 
of  him : 

"It  does  not  appear  to  be  at  all  surprising  that  a  runaway 
slave  should  betake  himself  at  once  to  Rome.'7 

The  gentleman  who  follows  me  in  this  debate,  knows 
very  well  that  to  the  foregoing  I  might  add  any  num 
ber  of  authorities,  of  equal  weight  and  importance. 

Historians  all  agree  that  slavery  existed,  and  was 
general  throughout  the  Roman  empire,  at  the  time  the 
Apostolic  Churches  were  instituted.  I  have  at  my 
command  the  authorities  to  prove  this ;  but  no  well- 
informed  gentleman  will  expose  himself  by  calling  the 
fact  in  question.  I  will  cite  the  authorities  only;  and 
Abolitionists  denying  my  position  can  examine  for 
themselves.  See  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,"  vol.  i.  See  "Inquiry  into  Roman 


BYW.G.BROWNLOW.  85 

Slavery,"  by  Wm.- Blair,  Edinburg  edition  of  1833. 
See  vol.  iv.  of  "Lardner's  Works,"  p.  213.  See  vol. 
i.  of  "]Jr.  Robertson's  Works,"  London  edition. 

These  authorities,  if  consulted,  show  that  slavery 
was  a  civil  institution  of  the  State ;  that  the  Roman 
laws  held  slaves  as  property,  at  the  disposal  of  their 
masters ;  that  the  slaves,  whether  white  or  black,  had 
no  civil  rights  or  existence,  and  contended  for  none ; 
and  that  there  were,  throughout  the  empire,  three 
slaves  to  one  citizen  —  showing  an  exact  similarity  be 
tween  the  Roman  empire  and  the  tobacco,  cotton,  and 
sugar-growing  States  of  this  Confederacy!  Gibbon 
says  that  "slavery  existed  in  every  province  and  every 
family,"  and  that  they  were  bought  and  sold  accord 
ing  to  their  capacities  for  usefulness,  and  the  demand 
for  labor  —  selling  for  hundreds  of  dollars,  and  from 
that  down  to  the  price  of  a  beast  of  burden  ! 

Now,  it  is  notorious  that  the  Gospel  made  consider 
able  progress  among  the  citizens  of  the  Roman  em 
pire  ;  and,  as  every  family  owned  slaves,  it  follows 
that  slaveholders  were  converted  to  God,  and  admitted 
into  the  Church.  It  will  not  do  to  allege,  as  some 
anti-slavery  men  do,  that  the  poor,  including  the 
slaves,  were  alone  converted  to  God,  because  the  apos 
tles  make  frequent  allusions  to  the  receiving  into  the 
Church  of  intelligent,  learned,  professional,  and  opu 
lent  persons.  The  learned  DR.  MOSHEIM,  in  his 
"Church  History,"  vol.  i.,  Belating  to  the  first  three 
centuries,  settles  this  question.  He  says  : 

"The  apostles,  in  their  writings,  prescribe  rules  for  the 
conduct  of  the  rich  as  well  as  the  poor,  for  masters  as  well 

8 


86  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

as  servants — a  convincing  proof  that  among  the  members  of 
the  Church  planted  by  them  were  to  be  found  persons  of 
opulence  and  masters  of  families.  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter 
admonished  Christian  women  not  to  study  the  adorning  of 
themselves  with  pearls,  with  gold  and  silver,  or  costly  array. 
1  Tim.  ii.  9;  1  Peter  iii.  3.  It  is,  therefore,  plain  that  there 
must  have  been  women  possessed  of  wealth  adequate  to  the 
purchase  of  bodily  ornaments  of  great  price.  From  1  Tim. 
vi.  20,  and  Col.  ii.  8,  it  is  manifest  that,  among  the  first 
converts  to  Christianity,  there  were  men  of  learning  and 
philosophers;  for,  if  the  wise  and  the  learned  had  unani 
mously  rejected  the  Christian  religion,  what  occasion  could 
there  have  been  for  this  caution  ?  1  Cor.  i.  26  unquestion 
ably  carries  with  it  the  plainest  intimation  that  persons  of 
rank  or  power  were  not  wholly  wanting  in  that  assembly. 
Indeed,  lists  of  the  names  of  the  various  illustrious  persons 
who  embraced  Christianity,  in  its  weak  and  infantile  state, 
are  given  by  Blondel,  p.  235  De  Episcopis  et  Presbyteris; 
also  by  Wetstein,  in  his  Preface  to  Origeu's  Dia.  Con.  Mar., 
p.  18." 

This  is  an  important  argument ;  for  it  is  safe  to  go 
to  Christ  and  his  inspired  apostles  to  learn  the  truth 
in  reference  to  slavery.  In  concluding  what  I  term 
my  scriptural  argument  in  favor  of  the  institution  of 
slavery,  I  desire  to  present  for  the  consideration  of 
the  gentleman  who  replies  to  me,  Five  Points,  which  I 
hold  to  be  legitimate  deductions  from  what  has  gone 
before.  His  Church  relations  have  acquainted  him 
•with  the  "Five  Points  of  Calvinism,"  and  his  local 
habitation  in  the  Empire  State  has  made  him  familiar 
with  the  "  Five  Points  in  New  York,"  where  the  degra 
dation  of  free  white  and  colored  persons  falls  far  below 
the  degradation  of  the  slaves  in  any  portion  of  the 
South.  But  I  will  present  him  with  Five  Points,  in 
the  close  of  this  scriptural  argument,  which  he  may 
characterize  the  FIVE  POINTS  OF  THE  SOUTH. 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  87 

First  Point.  —  There  is  not  a  single  passage  in  the 
New  Testament,  nor  a  single  act  in  the  records  of  the 
Church,  during  her  early  history,  for  even  centuries, 
containing  any  direct,  professed,  or  intended  denun 
ciation  of  slavery.  The  apostles  found  the  institution 
existing,  under  the  authority  and  sanction  of  law; 
and,  in  their  labors  among  the  people,  masters  and 
slaves  bowed  at  the  same  altar,  communed  at  the  same 
table,  and  were  taken  into  the  same  church  together 
—  the  apostles  exhorting  the  one  to  treat  the  other  as 
became  the  Gospel,  and  the  other  to  obedience  and 
honesty,  that  their  religious  profession  might  not  be 
evil  spoken  of! 

Secondly.  —  The  early  Church  of  Christ,  not  only 
admitted  the  existence  of  slavery,  but  in  various  ways, 
by  her  teachings  and  discipline,  expressed  her  appro- 
bation  of  it,  enforcing  the  observance  of  certain  " Fu 
gitive  Slave  Laws,"  which  had  been  enacted  by  the 
State.     And  in  the  various  acts  of  the  Church,  from 
the  times  of  the  Apostles  downward,  through  several 
centuries,  she  enacted  laws  and  adopted  regulations, 
touching  the  duties  of  masters  and  slaves,  as  such. 
This,  apart  from  all  other  considerations,  amounts  to 
a  justification  and  defence  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 
Thirdly.  —  My  investigations  of  the   subject  have 
led  me  to  where  similar  investigations  must  lead  all 
candid  and  unprejudiced  men  —  namely,  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  God  intended  the  relation  of  master  and  slave 
to  exist,  both  in  and  out  of  his  Church.     Hence,  when 
God  opened  the  way  for  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
the  Apostles  and  first  teachers  of  Christianity  found 
slavery  incorporated  with  every  department  of  society  ; 


88  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

and,  in  the  adoption  of  rules  for  the  government  of  the 
members  of  the  church,  they  provided  for  the  rights 
of  owners,  and  the  wants  of  slaves. 

Fourthly.  —  Slavery,  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
had  so  penetrated  society,  and  was  so  intimately  inter 
woven  with  it,  that  a  religion  preaching  freedom  to  the 
slave,  would  have  arrayed  against  it  the  civil  authori 
ties,  armed  against  itself  the  whole  power  of  the  State, 
and  destroyed  the  usefulness  of  its  preachers.  St. 
Paul  knew  this,  and  did  not  assail  the  institution  of 
slavery,  but  labored  to  get  both  masters  and  slaves  to 
heaven,  as  all  ministers  should  do.  That  St.  Paul  was 
himself  favorable  to  slave-holding,  is  manifest  from  the 
fact,  that  in  the  case  of  the  runaway  slave  he  appre 
hended,  he  modestly  asked  the  wealthy  owner  for  the 
slave,  for  his  own  domestic  purposes  ! 

Fifthly.  —  Slavery  having  existed  ever  since  the 
first  organization  of  the  Church,  the  Scriptures  clearly 
teach  that  it  will  exist  to  the  end  of  time.  Rev.  vi. 
12-17  points  to  "  The  Day  of  Judgment,"  "The  Last 
Day,"  "  The  Great  Day,"  and  the  condition  of  the  hu 
man  race  at  that  time,  as  well  as  the  classes  of  persons 
to  be  judged,  rewarded,  and  punished !  A  portion  of 
this  text  reads  : 

"And  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  the  great  men,  and  the 
rich  men,  and  the  mighty  men,  and  every  bondman,  and 
every/reewia??/'  etc. 

will  be  there  ;  clearly  implying  that  slavery  will  exist, 
and  that  the  relations  of  master  and  slave  will  be  re 
cognized,  to  the  end  of  time  ! 

These   sacred  truths   stand  in  the  face  of  all  our 


BY  W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  89 

Abolition  priests,  to   teacli  them  the   two  following 
moral  lessons : 

First.  —  That  all  the  finer  feelings  of  humanity 
were  cherished  in  the  bosoms  of  slave-owners  —  and 
that  devout  slave-owners  received  no  rebuke  from  the 
lips  of  the  Redeemer  for  holding  their  slaves  in  bond 
age  ;  yet,  according  to  Abolition  Christianity,  they  were 
guilty  of  "  the  accursed  sin  of  slavery." 

Second.  —  That  the  bonds  of  the  slave  may  provoke 
the  wrath  of  the  Abolitionist,  but  not  of  the  Redeemer 
—  who  smiles  alike  on  the  devout  master  and  the  pious 
slave,  having  prepared  for  each  a  place  in  Heaven ! 

Abraham,  called  the  father  of  the  faithful,  and  the 
friend  of  God  and  man,  was  a  large  slave-holder,  and, 
upon  his  death  bed,  bequeathed  his  slaves  unto  his  son 
Isaac ;  and  yet,  the  angel  of  God  stood  by  the  couch 
of  the  dying  patriarch,  cheering  his  expiring  moments 
with  the  certain,  but  then  anticipated  joys  of  paradise  ! 

And  Paul !  the  inspired  preacher,  whose  spirit  was 
caught  up  to  the  third  Heaven,  and  heard  things  it  was 
not  lawful  to  utter — yes,  Paul!  who  endured  stripes 
and  imprisonment,  who  was  stoned  and  beaten  with 
rods,  who  was  ofttimes  in  perils,  on  the  waters,  in  the 
wilderness,  among  robbers,  among  false  brethren,  who 
endured  weariness  and  painfulness,  and  hunger,  and 
thirst,  and  cold,  and  weakness  —  Paul!  who  received 
just  such  a  salary  as  this  for  preaching  the  gospel  to 
the  slaves  and  slave-holders  in  Rome,  had  no  heart  to 
pity  the  bonds  of  Onesimus  !  On  the  contrary,  he  chided 
him  for  absconding  from  his  master,  and  bid  him 
ask  pardon  of  his  God  for  going  off  upon  "  an  under 
ground  railroad  !"  This  is  not  all  that  Paul  was  guilty 


90  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

of — after  arresting  Onesimus,  and  returning  him  to 
his  rich  master,  he  accosted  that  master  as  his  dearly 
beloved  brother! 

It  will  not  be  charged  that  Paul  had  fatten  from 
grace,  and  therefore  became  the  advocate  of  slavery. 
He  was  translated  to  the  third  Heaven  before  he  taught 
the  masters  and  slaves  of  Rome  their  moral  obligations, 
but  after  this,  he  died  a  most  triumphant  death,  and 
declared  that  he  had  fought  the  good  fight,  and  kept 
the  faith,  as  well  in  reference  to  slavery  as  other  vital 
questions. 

Moses  received  his  divine  authority  on  the  Mount, 
before  he  wrote  the  law  of  bondage  for  the  poor  in 
Israel.  And  upon  the  precepts  of  the  Patriarchs  and 
Apostles,  we  rest  our  hopes  for  the  present  and  eternal 
felicity  of  the  masters  and  slaves  of  the  South. 

But,  a  strange  star  has  appeared  in  the  North, 
ominous  of  a  more  merciful  dispensation  to  the  slave 
than  that  which  appeared  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea ! 
And,  twinkling  over  the  dwellings  of  that  holy  band  of 
Priests,  who  denounced  the  Fugative  Slave-Bill  of  con 
gress  in  terms  of  rebellious  indignation  in  the  house  of 
God; — and  applying  forty  parson  power  to  the  present 
Chief  Magistrate,  touching  the  Kansas  question,  a 
voice  is  now  to  be  heard  in  the  New  England  hea.vens, 
saying,  "Lo  !  these  —  these  holy  priests  are  the  friends 
of  the  colored  race,  and  not  the  Saviour  and  his 
Apostles !" 

But  I  am  to  be  told,  for  this  is  the  argument  of 
Abolitionism,  that  "American  Slavery']  differs  inform 
and  principle  from  that  of  the  chosen  people  of  God, 
as  set  forth  in  the  Bible.  On  behalf  of  the  South,  I 


BYW.G.BROWNLOW.  91 

accept  the  Bible  terms  as  the  definition  of  our  slavery, 
and  its  precepts  as  the  guide  of  our  conduct. 

We  desire  nothing  more  —  we  will  not  be  satisfied 
with  anything  less.  To  be  candid,  the  South  has 
fashioned  her  form  of  slavery  after  that  in  the  Bible. 
Even  the  right  to  "  buffet,"  which  is  esteemed  so  shock 
ing  to  Abolitionists,  finds  its  express  license  in  the 
gospel.  We  are  there  taught  to  take  it  patiently, 
when,  as  servants,  we  are  "buffeted  for  our  faults." 
1  Peter,  ii.  20.  Nay,  what  is  stronger,  God  directs  the 
Hebrews  to  "  bore  holes  in  the  ears  of  their  brothers," 
to  mark  them,  when,  under  certain  circumstances,  they 
become  perpetual  slaves.  The  master  is  told,  in  the 
Mosaic  law  of  bondage,  to  confine  his  slaves  to  the 
door-post,  and  there  to  bore  his  ears  through  with  an 
awl,  as  the  mark  of  perpetual  slavery.  Exodus,  xxi.  6. 
We  have  never  gone  this  far  at  the  South ;  though,  in 
all  material  respects,  we  have  fashioned  our  system 
after  that  laid  down  in  the  Bible. 

American  slavery  is  not  only  not  sinful,  but  especially 
commanded  by  God  through  Moses,  and  approved 
through  the  Apostles  by  Christ.  And  I  might  con 
clude  its  defence  by  asserting  that  what  God  ordains, 
and  Christ  sanctifies,  should  command  the  respect  and 
toleration  of  even  Northern  Abolitionists.  But  I  will 
remark,  while  on  this  subject,  that  the  selling  of  bond 
men,  by  and  among  the  Hebrews,  was  authorized  by 
the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  practice  was  in  vogue  before 
the  giving  of  the  law.  In  the  new  law  given  from 
Sinai,  the  practice  of  selling  white  brethren,  Hebrews, 
was  forbidden,  but  they  were  allowed  to  make  merchan 
dise  of  the  Canaanites,  the  negro  descendants  of  Ham, 


92  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

then  the  aborigines  of  old  Canaan.  The  Hebrews 
were  allowed  to  sell  one  another  at  home,  but  not  to 
sell  each  other  to  strangers  ;  but  heathen  negroes,  they 
were  allowed  to  buy  and  sell  —  to  traffic  in  them  as 
articles  of  trade  and  commerce,  driving  them  to  the 
best  slave  markets  they  could  find.  See  Exodus,  xxi. 
7 ;  and  Leviticus,  xxv.  42. 

But  to  make  the  fact  still  more  clear,  namely,  that 
the  Hebrews  did  deal  in  slaves  of  the  negro  race,  see 
the  Book  of  JOEL*  3d  chapter,  where  we  learn  that  the 
people  of  Tyre  and  Sidonia  sold  their  little  ones  at 
drinking-houses  for  wine — separating  infants  from  their 
mothers.  I  claim  that  the  statutes  of  the  Southern 
States  are  more  lenient  than  the  laws  of  Moses, 
because  they  protect  the  slaves  against  these  Israelitish 
cruelties.  See  Bouvier's  Law  Dictionary,  under  the 
head  of  "  Cruelty  to  Slaves."  I  quote  from  that  book : 
"By  the  civil  code  of  Louisiana,  Act  192,  it  is  en 
acted,  that  when  a  master  shall  be  convicted  of  cruel 
treatment  to  his  slave,  the  judge  may  pronounce, 
beside  the  penalty  established  for  such  cases,  that  the 
slave  shall  be  sold  at  public  auction,  in  order  to  place 
him  out  of  the  reach  of  the  power  of  his  master  who 
has  abused  him,"  I  quote  from  the  New  York  Herald, 
March  15,  1856,  a  statement  I  know  to  be  true :  —  "A 
man  named  Hunter  has  been  fined  $1000,  and 
forfeited  six  slaves,  at  New  Orleans,  for  selling  them  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  separate  mother  and  child,  con 
trary  to  the  laws  of  Louisiana." 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  that  we  have  laws  to  protect 
slaves  in  the  South,  laws  to  punish  cruelty,  and  they 
are  enforced.  And  though  I  am  not  expected  to  quote 


BYW.    G.BROWNLOW.  93 

"  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little, 
and  there  a  little,"  I  will  take  occasion  to  say,  once 
for  all,  that  similar  laws  exist  in  all  the  Slave  States  ! 

As  to  the  law  of  Moses  authorizing  the  slave  traffic, 
it  was  in  force  in  America,  and  carried  on  chiefly  by 
Northern  men,  until  Congress  passed  a  law  in  1807, 
which  took  effect  January  1st,  1808,  declaring  it  to  be 
piracy,  and  punishing  it  with  fine  and  imprisonment. 
Twenty  years  previously,  whilst  the  Constitution  of  our 
country  was  being  formed,  a  committee,  a  majority  of 
whom  were  from  Slave  States,  reported  a  section  autho 
rizing  Congress  to  abolish  the  trade  after  the  year 
1800 ;  but  this  was  zealously  opposed  by  the  Northern 
States,  and  the  period  was  extended  until  1808 ;  thus 
giving  eight  additional  years  to  the  "inhuman  traffic," 
by  the  votes  of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  and 
Connecticut,  while  the  votes  of  the  South,  including 
Virginia,  were  against  such  extension.  Thus  the  trade 
was  continued  eight  years  longer  than  it  should  have 
been,  by  the  votes  of  men  from  New  England,  who 
considered  it  their  duty  to  guard  the  commercial  inte 
rests  of  their  pious  constituents  !  And  what  were  legi 
timate  articles  of  commerce  in  those  days,  with  which 
ships  sailing  from  New  England  ports  bought  Africans 
in  their  own  country?  I  answer,  gunpowder,  guns, 
trinkets,  beads,  looking-glasses,  tobacco,  segars,  and 
New  England  rum.  Slaves,  in  those  days,  and  at  dif 
ferent  times,  were  advertised  to  be  exchanged  for  these 
articles,  in  the  Boston  papers  ! 

But  I  am  to  be  told  that  among  the  peculiarities  of 
"American  Slavery"  are  these:  slaves  are  placed 
upon  the  block  at  the  South,  and  sold  to  the  highest 


94  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

bidder — that  they  are  abused  in  "  slave-pens,  in  cotton- 
fields,  among  cotton-gins,  and  in  the  rice  swamps  of 
the  South."  And  I  am  to  be  told  that  abuse  of  power 
and  authority,  such  as  may  be  seen  at  the  auction- 
blocks  and  whipping-posts  of  the  South,  is  a  part  and 
parcel  of  our  system  of  slavery,  and  inseparable  from 
it.  I  deny  the  truth  of  this  assertion.  Power  is  not 
always  abused.  All  masters  do  not  abuse  their  slaves 
—  a  small  proportion  do,  and  therefore  abuse  is  sepa 
rable  from  our  system  of  slavery.  In  the  Creole  set 
tlements  of  Louisiana,  there  are  a  few  slave-owners 
who  are  cruel,  but  these  are  neither  Protestants,  nor 
native  Americans.  In  our  cotton-growing  States,  our 
hardest  task-masters  are  Northern  men,  by  birth  and 
education  !  Bad  men  abuse  negroes ;  good  men  do  not. 
And  in  all  cases,  the  abuse  arises  from  the  character 
and  disposition  of  the  master,  and  not  from  the  system. 
If  the  principle  were  a  correct  one,  that  it  is  proper 
to  pronounce  and  treat  as  sinful,  everything  that  has 
been  abused,  we  should  soon  undermine  the  foundation 
upon  which  society  rests,  and  destroy  the  harmony  of 
every  relation  that  God  has  instituted.  The  relation 
of  our  lawgivers  and  judges  has  been  abused.  The 
marriage  relation  has  been  abused.  The  blessed  Bible 
has  been  abused.  The  Sabbath  has  been  abused.  The 
truths  of  Christianity  have  been  abused.  And  nowhere 
in  this  country  have  these  things  been  more  shamefully 
abused,  than  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  !  Shall 
we  then  pronounce  all  these  sacred  relations  and  insti 
tutions  sinful,  and  treat  them  as  such  ?  We  ought  not, 
and  we  will  not;  therefore,  we  should  not,  on  the 
ground  of  its  abuse  by  a  few  men,  pronounce  and  treat 


BYW.    G.    BROWNLOW.  95 

as  sinful,  the  relation  and  position  of  a  slaveholder  in 
the  South! 

A  correct  idea  of  the  real  treatment  of  slaves  in  the 
South,  may  be  gathered  from  the  "Advice,  Orders, 
and  Instructions"  of  our  large  slave-owners.  I  will 
read  you  some  extracts  from  a  small  pamphlet,  of  fifteen 
pages,  the  title-page  of  which  runs  thus  : 

"Advice,  Orders,  and  Instructions  for  the  Management, 
Government,  and  Guidance  of  the  General  Agent,  Overseers, 
and  Employees,  on  the  Plantations  of  JOSEPH  A.  S.  ACK- 
LEN,  situate  in  the  Parish  of  West  Feliciana,  in  the  State 
of  Louisiana,  opposite  the  mouth  of  Hed  River. " 

MR.  ACKLEN  is  a  wealthy  planter,  and  owns  several 
plantations,  which  are  well  stocked  witji  negroes,  and 
to  each  overseer  he  gives  a  copy  of  this  pamphlet,  and 
requires  him  to  follow  its  teachings,  to  the  letter. 
Hear  what  is  said : 

"  Punishment  must  never  be  cruel  or  abusive,  for  it  is  ab 
solutely  mean  and  unmanly  to  whip  a  negro  from  m«re  pas 
sion  and  malice,  and  any  man  who  can  do  so,  is  utterly  unfit 
to  have  control  of  negroes." 

"  My  negroes  are  all  permitted  to  come  to  me  or  my  a^ent 
with  their  complaints,  and  in  no  instance  shall  they  be  pu 
nished  for  so  doing;  and  in  my  absence,  I  enjoin  it  upon  my 
agent  to  attend  to  their  complaints,  and  examine  them,  and 
if  they  have  been  cruelly  or  inhumanly  treated,  the  overseer 
must  be  at  once  discharged." 

11  Feel,  and  show  that  you  feel,  a  kind  and  considerate 
regard  for  the  negroes  under  your  control.  Never  cruelly 
punish  them,  nor  overwork  them,  or  otherwise  abuse  them, 
but  seek  to  render  their  situation  as  comfortable  and  con 
tented  as  possible :  see  that  their  necessities  be  supplied ; 
that^their  food  and  clothing  be  good  and  sufficient;  their 
houses  comfortable ;  and  be  kind  and  attentive  to  them  in 
sickness  and  in  old  age. 

"  See  that  the  negroes  are  regularly  fed,  and  that  their 


96  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

food  is  wholesome,  nutritious  and  well  cooked,  and  that  they 
keep  themselves  clean.  At  least  once  in  every  week,  visit 
each  of  their  houses,  and  see  that  they  have  been  swept  out 
and  cleaned;  examine  their  bedding,  &c.,  and  see  that  they 
have  been  well  aired,  their  clothes  mended,  and  everything 
attended  to  which  conduces  to  their  comfort  and  happiness. 

"  If  any  of  the  negroes  have  been  reported  sick,  without 
delay  see  what  ails  them,  and  that  proper  medicine  and 
attendance  are  given. 

"  The  regularly  appointed  minister  for  my  places  must 
preach  on  Sundays  during  daylight. 

"  Christianity,  humanity  and  order  improve  and  elevate 
all,  and  injure  none  ]  whilst  infidelity,  selfishness  and  disorder 
curse  some,  delude  others,  and  degrade  all.  I  want  all  my 
people  encouraged  to  cultivate  religious  feelings  and  morality, 
and  punished  for  inhumanity  to  their  children  or  stock,  for 
profanity,  lying  or  thieving/' 

This  is  not  an  isolated  case  by  any  means,  but  these 
and  similar  regulations  govern  all  the  large  slave  plan 
tations  in  the  South.  Do  they  not  compare  favorably 
•with  the  treatment  of  white  slaves  at  the  North  ?  I 
think  so.  Nor  is  it  at  all  strange  that  most  of  our 
fugitive  slaves,  after  a  short  residence  in  a  free  State, 
desire  to  return  to  bondage  again  !  Hear  the  following 
items,  which  are  only  so  many  out  of  hundreds  of 
similar  cases,  constantly  occurring : 

"  RETURNED  TO  SLAVERY. — The  Hartford  (Connecticut) 
Times  gives  an  account  of  Caroline  Banks  and  her  children, 
and  Mary  Francis,  slaves  lately  liberated  by  their  mistress, 
(Mrs.  Sarah  Branch,  of  Chesterfield,  Va.,)  who  have  volun 
tarily  returned  to  bondage,  after  trying  to  support  themselves 
in  Boston  as  free  people.  They  declared  that  they  have 
toiled  constantly  and  could  scarcely  gain  a  subsistence,  and 
wanted  a  master  to  protect  them." —  South  Carolinian. 

"A  VOLUNTARY  SLAVE. — Instances  of  this  kind  are  be 
coming  more  and  more  numerous  every  day. — We  clip  from 
the  Frontier  (Texas')  News  of  the  3d  July,  1858. 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW. 


9T 


"While  in  attendance  on  the  District  Court,  in  Tarrant 
county,  one  day  of  the  previous  week,  I  witnessed  the 
ceremonies,  on  the  occasion  of  a  free  negro  voluntarily  going 
into  slavery.  He  came  into  court  cheerfully,  and  there  stated 
in  answer  to  questions  propounded  by  the  court,  that  he 
knew  the  consequence  of  the  act  —  that  he (had  selected  as 
his  master  W.  M.  Robinson,  without  any  compulsion  or  per 
suasion,  but  of  his  own  free  will  and  accord.  Two  gentlemen 
came  in  and  stated  under  oath  that  they  had  signed  his 
petition  at  his  request,  and  that  the  gentleman  he  had  selected 
as  his  master,  was  a  good  citizen  and  an  honorable  man,  &c. 
Jerry  is  a  fine  looking  negro,  some  forty  years  of  age,  and 
appears  to  be  smart." 

"  PREFER  SLAVERY. — A  negro  man,  who  had  been  emanci 
pated  by  his  master's  will,  voluntarily  re-entered  servitude 
on  Monday  last,  preferring  the  condition  of  a  slave  to  that 
of  removal  to  a  free  State.  He  selected  Mr.  Huckstep  as 
his  future  master.  His  value  was  assessed  at  $650,  one-half 
of  which  amount  Mr.  Huckstep  has  to  pay  into  the  State 
treasury." — Charlottsville  (Vet.)  Advocate. 

"PETITION  FOR  VOLUNTARY  ENSLAVEMENT, 

"  IN  CHANCERY  AT  ROGERSVILLE,  TENNESSEE. 

a  Ben,  a  man  of  color,  and  William  Miller,  Esq. 

"  NOTICE  is  hereby  given  that  Ben,  a  man  of  color,  has  this 
day  filed  his  Petition  in  our  said  Court,  asking  to  become  the 
slave  of  the  said  Miller,  under  an  act  of  the  General  Assem 
bly  of  said  State,  passed  the  8th  day  of  March,  1858. 

«  R.  C.  FAIN,  C.  &  M." 

"May  29^,  1858." 

I  am  personally  acquainted  with  the  parties  in  the 
last  of  the  several  cases  here  named,  as  well  as  with 
the  clerk  and  master  in  chancery  —  they  reside  about 
75  miles  from  where  I  do.  I  reside  in  East  Tennessee, 
a  section  of  the  State  comprising  30  counties  —  I  have 
resided  there  for  30  years,  and  20  years  of  that  time  I 
have  been  the  editor  of  a  public  journal,  having  quite 
9 


98  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

a  large  circulation.  I  only  name  this  fact  to  show  that 
I  have  some  little  acquaintance  there.  I  feel  warranted 
in  the  assertion  that  one-half  of  all  the  negro  slaves  in 
East  Tennessee,  would  refuse  their  freedom  to-day,  if 
tendered  to  them,  no  matter  under  what  circumstances. 
And  fully  two-thirds  would  refuse  to  be  set  at  liberty, 
if  required  to  leave  the  State ! 

Now,  I  hold  this  truth  to  be  self-evident,  that  what 
ever  improves  the  moral,  mental  and  physical  condition 
of  a  people,  is  a  blessing  to  them,  and  ought  to  be 
"  perpetuated."  That  slavery  has  improved  the  moral 
mental,  and  physical  condition  of  the  negroes  enslaved, 
must  be  evident  to  every  one  who  compares  the  con 
dition  of  the  southern  slaves  with  the  free  negroes  of 
the  North,  and  of  the  West  India  Islands,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  natives  of  Africa.  Nay,  more,  slavery, 
only,  can  elevate  the  negro  race  from  their  state  of 
pristine  barbarism  ;  the  continuation  of  slavery  is  abso 
lutely  necessary  to  prevent  the  civilized  negroes  of  the 
South  from  relapsing  into  their  old  savage  state,  in 
which  the  slaveholders  at  first  found  them. 

The  negroes  of  Africa  are  among  the  most  degraded 
of  the  colored  nice.  They  subsist  principally  upon  the 
spontaneous  productions  of  the  forest.  They  have  no 
knowledge  of  agriculture,  architecture,  the  mechanic 
arts,  or  any  of  those  arts  and  sciences  which  tend  to 
elevate  and  expand  the  intellect,  and  secure  the  rational 
enjoyments  of  life.  The  light  of  Divine  truth  has 
never  pierced  their  benighted  minds ;  the  feeble  opera 
tion  of  their  reason  has  not  even  revealed  to  them  a 
glimmering  of  the  existence  of  a  God ;  and  worshipping 


BY    W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  99 

stones,  insects,  and  reptiles,  their  moral  character  is  in 
harmony  with  the  grovelling  objects  of  their  adoration. 
Fierce  and  cruel,  cowardly  and  treacherous,  ignorant 
and  lascivious  —  they  are  engaged  in  constant  wars, 
burning  their  enemies  at  the  stake,  and  feeding  on 
their  flesh  —  whole  tribes  in  abject  "slavery  —  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  intelligent  travellers  have  been 
led  to  class  them  as  a  superior  species  of  the  monkey 
tribe ! 

Turn  from  this  loathsome  picture  of  brutalized  hu 
manity,  to  the  sunny  plains  of  the  South,  the  land  of 
the  olive  and  the  vine,  where  the  great  ruler  of  the 
universe  has  covered  the  earth  with  tropical  fruits,  and 
what  do  we  see  ?  We  behold  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  industrious,  civilized  laborers,  clothed  in  the  garb 
of  civilization,  eating  the  bread  of  contentment,  pro 
duced  by  their  own  labor,  under  the  supervision  of 
Caucasian  intelligence  and  Christian  benevolence,  and 
increasing  in  numbers  with  a  rapidity,  which  clearly 
indicates  that  their  physical  condition  is  superior  to 
that  of  any  other  servile  laborers  on  earth  ! 

Revelation  has  risen,  full-orbed,  and  shines  in  a 
burst  of  glory  on  the  benighted  minds  of  our  Southern, 
slaves,  chasing  away  the  gloom  of  superstition.  Scarcely 
a  Sabbath  rolls  round,  but  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Southern  slaves,  listen  to  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  have  attached 
themselves  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  There  are  as 
many  slaves  within  the  fold  of  the  Church  in  the  South, 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  as  there  are  white 
persons,  if  not  more ! 


100  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

Connected  with  the  Methodists,  are 200,000 

Missionary  and  Hard-Shell  Baptists 170,000 

Old  and  New  School  Presbyterians 18,000 

Cumberland  Presbyterians 20,000 

Episcopalians 7,000 

All  other  sects  combined 26,000 

Methodists  in  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
included   in  the  Northern  Methodist 

Church 25,000 

Total  Colored  members  in  the  South 466,000 

When  in  Mobile  last  winter,  I  assisted  the  venera 
ble  BISHOP  KAVANAGH  in  the  Sabbath  services,  at  one 
of  the  several  African  churches  in  that  city.  It  was 
a  large  brick  church  —  not  fine,  but  substantial,  and 
seated  1500  persons.  It  cost  $7000  and  $6000  of 
that  was  contributed  by  the  slaves  themselves,  who  have 
a  membership  in  that  congregation  of  700.  They  were 
well  dressed,  and  spiritual  in  their  devotions,  turning 
to  the  pages  in  their  Hymn  Books  when  announced 
from  the  pulpit.  I  there  saw  pious  slaves  rejoicing 
around  the  altar  with  their  wealthy  masters,  and  the 
good  Bishop  !  I  have  seen  the  same  in  Savannah, 
Macon,  Memphis,  Nashville,  Charleston,  Richmond, 
Huntsville,  and  in  the  city  where  I  reside  ;  and  in  most 
of  these  I  have  preached  to  the  slaves.  And  if,  at 
any  time,  I  have  found  fault  with  the  colored  congrega 
tions  in  the  South,  it  has  been  because  of  their  extrav 
agance  in  dress,  and  the  wearing  of  an  excess  of  jew 
ellery,  and  of  the  fluttering  gew-gaws  worn  by  your  fine 
ladies  in  Philadelphia ! 

Do  the  Anti-Slavery  clergy  of  the  North  —  does  my 
Reverend  Abolition  competitor  —  see  nothing  in  all 


BY  W.    G.   BROW'NLOW.  :107 

this,  for  which  to  thank  God  ?  Millions  of  dollars  have 
been  spent,  and  hundreds  of  valuable  lives  sacrificed 
in  the  attempt  to  evangelize  the  negroes  of  Africa,  and 
yet  slavery  —  the  abhorred,  cursed,  and  reviled  institu 
tion  of  slavery  —  has  brought  five  times  more  negroes 
into  the  fold  of  the  Church  than  all  the  missionary 
operations  of  the  world  combined.  Slavery  has  tamed, 
civilized,  Christianized,  if  you  please,  the  brutal  negroes 
brought  to  our  shores,  by  New  England  kidnappers; 
it  has  elevated  them  physically,  mentally ;  morally,  and 
therefore  it  has  proven  a  blessing  to  them,  and  ought 
to  be  "perpetuated" 

The  sinless  spirits  that  surround  God's  throne  to-day, 
who  are  transported  with  all  the  ecstasy  of  an  over 
whelming  affection,  and  bend  themselves  in  rapturous 
adoration  at  the  shrine  of  infinite  and.  unspotted  holi 
ness  ;  and  behold  with  heavenly  fascination  the  moral 
beauty  of  slavery,  which  even  throws  a  softening  lustre 
over  the  awfulness  of  the  Godhead ;  those  pure  and 
holy  spirits,  whose  sinless  existence  lies  in  the  know 
ledge  and  admiration  of  Deity ;  and  who  see  sin  in  all 
its  malignity,  and  salvation  in  all  its  mysterious  great 
ness,  look  down  with  delight  upon  what  sla,very  is  doing 
for  the  African  race  !  Oh  !  with  what  desire  do  they 
ponder  on  God's  ways,  when,  amidst  the  urgency  of 
all  demands,  which  look  so  high  and  indispensable,  they 
see  the  unfolding  of  the  attribute  of  mercy,  and  the 
Supreme  Lawgiver  bending  upon  the  abject  African 
race  an  eye  of  tenderness,  and  in  his  profound  and 
unsearchable  wisdom,  devising  for  them  the  institution 
of  slavery,  as  a  plan  of  restoration;  the  everlasting 
Son,  moving  from  his  dwelling-place  in  heaven,  to 
9* 


1Q2  AFFIRMATIVE;   II. 

carry  it  forward  through  all  the  difficulties  by  which 
it  is  encompassed ;  and  by  the  virtue  of  his  mysterious 
sacrifice,  magnifying  the  glory  of  every  other  per 
fection  ;  making  mercy  triumph  over  them  all,  and 
throwing  open  a  way  by  which  the  polluted  African 
(with  the  whole  lustre  of  the  divine  character  untar 
nished)  may  be  re-admitted  into  fellowship  with  God, 
and  be  again  brought  back  within  the  circle  of  his  loyal 
and  affectionate  family.  Who  would  have  thought  it ! 
The  wonder-working  God,  who  has  strewed  the  field 
of  immensity  with  so  many  worlds,  and  who  would 
shatter  them  to  atoms,  before  his  truth  or  holiness 
should  undergo  the  least  suspicion  of  a  stain ;  comes 
down  to  dwell  with  man,  and  by  his  wisdom,  with  the 
fragments  of  a  different  chaos,  (the  wreck  of  rebellion) 
brings  light,  life,  harmony,  and  salvation,  to  the  African 
race,  through  the  mild  and  benignant  institution  of 
slavery  !  0  Lord  God  !  thou  art  great  in  counsel ! 
Thou  art  the  wonderful  Counsellor ! 

But  I  go  further.  While  I  hold,  and  I  think  I  have 
proven,  that  the  condition  of  Southern  negroes  has 
been  vastly  improved  by  slavery ;  I  also  assert,  without 
fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  slavery,  only, 
could  have  worked  that  improvement,  and  that  the 
preservation  of  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is 
essential  to  the  continued  improvement  and  future 
welfare  of  the  negro  race  of  the  South.  I  assert  that 
"American  Slavery"  is  a  blessing;  a  blessing  to  the 
master,  a*blessing  to  the  non-slave-holders  of  the  South, 
a  blessing  to  the  civilized  white  race  in  general,  and  a 
blessing  to  the  negro  slaves  in  particular. 

To  prove  this  I  bring   forward  the  testimony  of 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  103 

Abolitionists  against  slavery.  In  their  zeal  to  cast 
odium  on  slavery,  the  Abolitionists  prove  everything 
in  favor  of  the  "peculiar  institution;"  for  they  prove 
that  the  slaves  of  America  are  the  only  negroes  to  be 
found  who  are  really  contented,  comfortable  and  happy. 
The  American  Missionary  Association,  in  their  seventh 
Annual  Report,  for  1853,  at  page  49,  says : 

"The  number  of  missionaries  and  teachers  in  Canada, 
with  which  the  year  commenced,  has  been  greatly  reduced. 
Early  in  the  year,  Mr.  Kirkland  wrote  to  the  Committee, 
that  the  opposition  to  white  missionaries,  manifested  by  the 
colored  people  of  Canada,  had  so  greatly  increased,  by  the 
interested  misrepresentations  of  ignorant  colored  men,  pre 
tending  to  be  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  that  he  thought  his 
own  and  his  wife's  labors,  and  the  funds  of  the  Association, 
could  be  better  employed  elsewhere/' 

Next  in  order,  I  call  your  attention  to  the  Annual 
Report  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti- Slavery 
Society,  for  1853,  which  discourses  thus  : 

"  The  friends  of  emancipation  in  the  United  States  have 
been  disappointed  in  some  respects  at  the  results  in  the  West 
Indies,  because  they  expected  too  much.  A  nation  of  slaves 
cannot  at  once  be  converted  into  a  nation  of  intelligent,  in 
dustrious,  and  moral  freemen.  —  It  is  not  too  much,  even 
now,  to  say  of  the  people  of  Jamaica,  their  condition  is  ex 
ceedingly  degraded,  their  morals  wofully  corrupt.  But  this 
must  by  no  means  be  understood  to  be  of  universal  applica 
tion.  With  respect  to  those  who  have  been  brought  under  a 
healthful  educational  and  religious  influence,  it  is  not  true. 
But  as  respects  the  great  mass,  whose  humanity  has  been 
ground  out  of  them  by  cruel  oppression  —  whom^no  good 
Samaritan  hand  has  yet  reached — how  could  it  be  otherwise  ? 
We  wish  to  turn  the  tables;  to  supplant  oppression  by  right 
eousness,  insult  by  compassion  and  brotherly-kindness,  hatred 
and  contempt  by  love  and  winning  meekness,  till  we  allure 
these  wretched  ones  to  the  hope  and  enjoyment  of  manhood 


104  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

and  virtue.  —  The  means  of  education  and  religious  instruc 
tion  are  better  enjoyed,  although  but  little  appreciated  and 
improved  by  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  It  is  also  true, 
that  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  is  becoming  somewhat  en 
lightened.  But  while  this  is  true,  yet  their  moral  condition 
is  very  far  from  being  what  it  ought  to  be.  It  is  exceedingly 
dark  and  distressing.  Licentiousness  prevails  to  a  most 
alarming  extent  among  the  people.  The  almost  universal 
prevalence  of  intemperance  is  another  prolific  source  of  the 
moral  darkness  and  degradation  of  the  people.  The  great 
mass,  among  all  classes  of  the  inhabitants,  from  the  Grovernoi 
in  his  palace  to  the  peasant  in  his  hut  —  from  the  Bishop  in 
his  gown  to  the  beggar  in  his  rags  —  are  all  slaves  to  their 
cups/' 

To  strengthen  the  charges  made  by  American  Abo 
litionists,  I  add  the  following  from  the  London  Times, 
of  the  same  date.  In  speaking  of  the  results  of  eman 
cipation  in  Jamaica,  it  says : 

"  The  negro  has  not  acquired  with  his  freedom  any  habits 
of  industry  or  morality.  His  independence  is  but  little  better 
than  that  of  an  uncaptured  brute.  Having  accepted  few  of 
the  restraints  of  civilization,  he  is  amenable  to  few  of  its 
necessities ;  and  the  wants  of  his  nature  are  so  easily  satisfied, 
that  at  the  current  rate  of  wages,  he  is  called  upon  for  nothing 
but  fitful  or  desultory  exertion.  The  blacks,  therefore,  in 
stead  of  becoming  intelligent  husbandmen,  have  become 
vagrants  and  squatters,  and  it  is  now  apprehended  that  with 
the  failure  of  cultivation  in  the  island  will  come  the  failure 
of  its  resources  for  instructing  or  controlling  its  population. 
So  imminent  does  this  consummation  appear,  that  memorials 
have  been  signed  by  classes  of  colonial  society  hitherto 
standing  aloof  from  politics,  and  not  only  the  bench  and  the 
bar,  but  tTie  bishop,  clergy,  and  ministers  of  all  denomina 
tions  in  the  island,  without  exceptions,  have  recorded  their 
conviction,  that,  in  the  absence  of  timely  relief,  the  religious 
and  educational  institutions  of  the  island  must  be  abandoned, 
and  the  masses  of  the  population  retrograde  to  barbarism." 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  105 

MR.  BIGLOW,  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
a  few  years  ago  spent  the  winter  in  Jamaica,  and  in 
noticing  the  decline  in  the  Agriculture  of  the  Island, 
and  the  quantity  of  lands  thrown  out  of  cultivation,  he 


"  This  decline  has  been  going  on  from  year  to  year,  daily 
becoming  more  alarming,  until  at  length  the  island  has 
reached  what  would  appear  to  be  the  last  profound  of  distress 
and  misery,  when  thousands  of  people  do  not  know,  when 
they  rise  in  the  morning,  whence  or  in  what  manner  they  are 
to  procure  bread  for  the  day." 

GOVERNOR  WOOD,  of  Ohio,  on  his  way  to  Valparaiso, 
in  1853,  thus  describes  what  he  witnessed  at  Kingston, 
Jamaica,  while  the  steamer  remained  in  that  port : 

"  We  saw  many  plantations,  the  buildings  dilapidated  — 
fields  of  sugar-cane  half-worked  and  apparently  poor,  and 
nothing  but  that  which  will  grow  without  the  labor  of  man, 
appeared  luxuriant  and  flourishing.  The  island  itself  is  of 
great  fertility,  one  of  the  best  of  the  Antilles ;  but  all  the 
large  estates  upon  it  are  now  fast  going  to  ruin.  In  the 
harbor  were  not  a  dozen  ships  of  all  nations  —  no  business 
was  doing,  and  everything  you  heard  spoken  was  in  the  lan 
guage  of  complaint.  Since  the  blacks  have  been  liberated 
they  have  become  indolent,  insolent,  degraded,  and  dishonest. 
They  are  a  rude,  beastly  set  of  vagabonds,  lying  naked  about 
the  streets,  as  filthy  as  the  Hottentots,  and,  I  believe,  worse." 

BISHOP  KIP,  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  on  his  way  to 
California,  in  1853,  bears  this  testimony  as  to  what  he 
witnessed  at  the  same  port,  while  the  steamer  stopped 
to  take  in  coal : 

"  The  streets  are  crowded  with  the  most  wretched-looking 
negroes  to  be  seen  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Lazy,  shiftless 
and  diseased,  they  will  not  work,  since  the  manumission  act 


106  AFFIRMATIVE,   II. 

has  freed  them.  Even  coaling  the  steamer  is  done  by  women. 
About  a  hundred  march  on  board  in  a  line  with  tubs  on  their 
heads  (tubs  and  coal  together  weighing  about  90  pounds), 
and  with  a  wild  song  empty  them  into  the  hold.  The  men 
work  a  day,  and  then  live  on  it  a  week.  The  depth  of  degra 
dation  to  which  the  negro  population  has  sunk,  is,  we  are 
told,  indescribable." 

But  here  is  a  portion  of  a  letter  from  G-erritt  Smith 
to  Gov.  HUNT  of  New  York,  in  1852.  My  friend  Mr. 
Pryne  assisted,  but  the  other  day,  in  a  "  Liberty 
Party"  Convention  at  Syracuse,  in  nominating  Mr. 
Smith  for  Governor.  Speaking  of  his  ineffectual 
labors  in  trying  to  prevail  on  the  free  colored  people 
to  betake  themselves  to  mechanical  and  agricultural 
pursuits,  he  says: 

"  Suppose,  moreover,  that,  during  all  these  fifteen  years, 
they  had  been  quitting  the  cities,  where  the  mass  of  them  rot 
both  physically  and  morally,  and  had  gone  into  the  country 
to  become  farmers  and  mechanics  —  suppose,  I  say,  all  this 
— and  who  would  have  the  hardihood  to  affirm  that  the  Colo 
nization  Society  lives  upon  the  malignity  of  the  whites — but 
it  is  true  that»  it  lives  upon  voluntary  degradation  of  the 
blacks.  I  do  not  say  that  the  colored  people  are  more  de 
based  than  white  people  would  be  if  persecuted,  oppressed, 
and  outraged  as  are  the  colored  people.  But  I  do  say  that 
they  are  debased,  deeply  debased;  and  that  to  recover  them 
selves  they  must  become  heroes,  self-denying  heroes,  capable 
of  achieving  a  great  moral  victory  —  a  two-fold  victory  —  a 
victory  over  themselves  and  a  victory  over  their  enemies." 

So  says  Gerritt  Smith,  Mr.  Pryne's  Liberty  candi 
date  for  Governor  of  New  York !  So  says  the  great 
apostle  of  Northern  Abolitionism,  to  whom  my  com 
petitor  expects  to  be  consigned  after  death,  labelled 
"right  side  up  with  care!" 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  107 

I  conclude  my  testimony  on  this  point  with  an  ex 
tract  from  the  speech  in  the  Canadian  Parliament,  hut 
recently,  by  COL.  PRINCE,  an  Englishman  educated  in 
all  the  Anti-Slavery  prejudices  peculiar  to  the  English 
school.  I  copy  from  the  New  York  Day-Book,  for 
July  IT,  1858: 

"  Hon.  Col.  Prince  said  he  was  wishful  to  move  a  rider  to 
the  measure.  The  black  people  who  infested  the  land  were 
the  greatest  curse  to  the  Province.  The  lives  of  the  people 
of  the  West  were  made  wretched  by  the  inundation  of  these 
animals ;  and  many  of  the  largest  farmers  of  the  county  of 
Kent  had  been  compelled  to  leave  their  beautiful  farms,  be 
cause  of  the  pestilential,  swarthy  swarms.  What  were  these 
wretches  fit  for?  Nothing.  They  cooked  our  victuals  and 
shampooned  us;  but  who  would  not  rather  that  these  duties 
should  be  performed  by  white  men  ?  The  blacks  were  a 
worthless,  useless,  thriftless  set  of  beings.  They  were  too 
indolent,  lazy,  and  ignorant  to  work,  too  proud  to  be  taught; 
and  not  only  that,  if  the  criminal  calendars  of  the  country 
were  examined,  it  would  be  found  that  they  were  a  majority 
of  the  criminals.  They  were  so  detestable,  that  unless  some 
method  was  adopted  preventing  their  influx  into  this  country 
by  the  '  underground  railroad/  the  people  of  the  West  would 
be  obliged  to  drive  them  out  by  open  violence.  The  bill 
before  the  House  imposed  a  capitation  tax  upon  the  emigrants 
from  Europe;  and  the  object  of  this  motion  was  to  levy  a 
similar  tax  upon  blacks  who  came  hither  from  the  States. 
He  now  moved,  seconded  by  Mr.  Patton,  that  a  capitation  tax 
of  5s.  for  adults,  and  3s.  6d.  for  children,  above  one  year  and 
under  fourteen  years  of  age,  be  levied  on  persons  of  color 
emigrating  to  Canada  from  any  foreign  country.  Ought  not 
the  western  men  to  be  protected  from  the  rascalities  and  vil- 
lanies  of  the  black  wretches  ?  He  found  these  men  with 
fire,  and  food,  and  lodging,  when  they  were  in  need ;  and  he 
would  be  bound  to  say  that  the  black  men  of  the  county  of 
Essex  would  speak  well  of  him  in  this  respect.  But  he 
could  not  admit  them  as  being  equal  to  white  men ;  and, 
after  a  long  and  close  observation  of  human  nature,  he  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  black  man  was  born  to  and 


108  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

intended  for  slavery,  and  that  he  was  fit  for  nothing  else. 
(Sensation.*)  Hon.  gentlemen  might  try  to  groan  him  down, 
but  he  was  not  to  be  moved  by  mawkish  sentiment ;  and  he 
was  persuaded  that  they  might  as  well  try  to  change  the 
spots  of  the  leopard,  as  to  make  the  black  a  good  citizen. 
He  had  told  black  men  so;  and  the  lazy  rascals  shrugged 
their  shoulders,  and  wished  they  had  never  ran  away  from 
their  'good  old  rnassa'  in  Kentucky.  If  there  was  anything 
unchristian  in  what  he  proposed,  he  could  not  see  it,  and  he 
feared  that  he  was  not  born  a  Christian." 

Before  I  take  my  seat,  I  will  notice,  though  briefly, 
the  singular  speech  of  the  gentleman  last  evening ! 
He  spoke  some  three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  I  had 
concluded  my  speech  of  one  hour  and  a  quarter,  and 
abruptly  closed,  by  saying  that  I  had  advanced  no 
arguments  for  him  to  answer !  I  should  be  sorry  to 
think  that  the  impartiallind  intelligent  portion  of  the 
audience  were  of  the  same  opinion.  When  I  beheld 
upon  his  table,  as  I  did,  his  array  of  pamphlets,  bound 
books,  and  other  Abolition  documents,  I  really  looked 
for  a  reply  as  ponderous  as  the  famous  Report  of  Lord 
North  to  the  British  House  of  Commons ! 

The  gentleman  set  out  by  saying  that  he  would 
make  an  announcement  that  would  even  startle  the  Free 
Soilers  and  Black  Republicans  of  Philadelphia!  He 
was  for  driving  slavery  from  the  Slave  States — the 
Union  should  rock  as  long  as  it  rested  upon  the  bosoms 
of  four  millions  of  slaves;  that,  until  it  was  abolished, 
Southern  masters  would  have  to  sleep  with  pistols  under 
their  pillows !  This  did  startle  even  the  Free  Soilera 
and  Republicans  of  Philadelphia !  And  I  am  proud 
to  know  that  such  incendiary  —  nay,  such  infinitely 
infernal  —  sentiments,  meet  with  the  indignant  frowns, 
scorn,  and  contempt  of  all  virtuous,  honorable,  and 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  109 

conservative  men  in  Philadelphia.  I  know  the  good 
people  of  Philadelphia;  I  know  them  to  be  a  conser 
vative  people,  going  to  no  extremes,  either  with  Pro- 
Slavery  men  or  Abolitionists.  I  shall  so  represent 
them  in  the  South.  I  will  point  our  people,  with  plea 
sure,  to  the  period,  not  many  years  ago,  when,  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  this  magnificent  hall,  they  assem 
bled  and  burned  to  ashes  a  building  desecrated  by  Abo 
lition  meetings,  from  which  buck  negroes  walked  home 
with  white  women ! 

But  we  must  sleep,  in  the  South,  with  pistols  under 
our  pillows !  Yes,  this  is  the  spirit,  and  these  are  the 
purposes,  of  that  class  of  Abolitionists  of  which  this 
gentleman  has  assumed  to  be  a  leader.  If  ever  our 
blood  is  shed  in  the  South,  it  will  be  by  our  negroes, 
whose  Southern  raising  and  instincts  have  imparted  to 
them  the  chivalry  of  the  South.  If  none  but  blue- 
bellied  Yankees  and  unmitigated  Northern  Abolition 
ists  come  down  upon  us,  we  shall  sleep  with  nothing 
more  terrific  under  our  pillows  than  spike-gimblets ! 
If,  however,  at  any  time,  an  army  of  Abolitionists 
from  the  North  shall  conclude  to  make  a  descent  upon 
the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  and  this  gentleman  ac 
companies  the  army,  I  will  thank  him  to  let  me  know 
which  regiment  he  is  in.  And  "when  Greek  meets 
Greek,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war." 

This  determination  on  the  part  of  Abolitionists 
either  to  crush  slavery  where  it  is,  or  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  is  becoming  general.  The  following  card, 
signed  by  five  of  this  gentleman's  associates  and  "boon 
companions,"  shows  their  spirit,  and  their  utter  dis 
regard  of  all  laws,  human  and  divine : 
10 


110  AFFIRM  ATIVE,   II. 

"Whereas,  it  must  be  obvious  to  all,  that  the  American 
Union  is  constantly  becoming  more  and  more  divided,  by 
slavery,  into  two  distinct  and  antagonistic  nations,  between 
whom  harmony  is  impossible,  and  even  ordinary  intercourse 
is  becoming  dangerous ; 

"  And  whereas  Slavery  has  now  gained  entire  control  over 
the  three  branches  of  our  National  Government,  Executive, 
Judiciary,  and  Legislative ;  has  so  interpreted  the  Constitu 
tion  as  to  deny  the  right  of  Congress  to  establish  freedom 
even  in  the  territories;  and  by  the  same  process  has  removed 
all  legal  protection  from  a  1-arge  portion  of  the  people  of  the 
Free  States ;  and  has  inflicted,  at  many  times  and  places,  out 
rages  far  greater  than  those  our  fathers  rose  in  arms  to  repel; 

"  And  whereas  there  seems  no  probability  that  the  future 
will,  in  these  respects,  be  different  from  the  past,  under  ex 
isting  State  relations  : 

"The  undersigned  respectfully  invite  their  fellow  citizens 
of  the  Free  States,  to  meet  in  Convention,  at ,  in  Octo 
ber,  1857,  to  consider  the  practicability,  probability,  and  ex 
pediency  of  a  separation  between  the  Free  and  Slave  States, 
and  to  take  such  other  measures  as  the  condition  of  the  times 
may  require. 

"THOS.  W.  HlGGINSON, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS, 
F.  W.  BIRD, 
DANIEL  MANN, 
WM.  L.  GARRISON." 

But  the  gentleman  complained  of  my  abuse  —  said  I 
uttered  hard  things  against  Northern  men  and  North 
ern  society.  Ye  gods  and  little  fishes !  Only  think 
of  Abram  Pryne,  the  bitter  and  unrelenting  editor  of 
the  McG-rawville  Reformer,  whose  columns,  day  in 
and  day  out,  afford  such  an  intemperance  of  bad  lan 
guage,  and  such  an  exhibition  of  abusive  words,  towards 
the  entire  South,  as  must  be  offensive  to  God,  and  all 
decent  and  conservative  men,  complaining  of  hard 
words  applied  to  Northern  men  and  Northern  society ! 


BY   W.    G.   BROWNLOW  111 

The  dictionaries  of  "Billingsgate"  maybe  searched  in 
vain  to  find  language  more  unbecoming  a  decent  press, 
not  to  say  one  conducted  by  a  minister  of  Him,  who, 
when  He  was  reviled,  reviled  not  again !  No  longer 
ago  than  last  evening,  this  gentleman  more  than  once 
applied  the  term  of  "ruffian  "  to  slaveholders,  and  in 
his  mad  ravings,  under  the  excitement  of  the  occasion, 
he  descended  to  the  use  of  such  foul  denunciations,  that 
from  that,  or  some  other  cause,  a  score  of  gentlemen 
left  the  hall  at  one  time  !  I  have  listened  to  no  paral 
lel  to  his  denunciations,  in  the  ribald  partisan  ha 
rangues  of  political  demagogues !  And  yet  the  gen 
tleman  complains  that  I  use  hard  words  toward  the 
Abolition  villifiers  of  the  South,  and  the  vile  conspira 
tors  against  this  glorious  Union  ! 

Here  is  an  article  from  the  New  York  Independent, 
of  November,  1856,  one  of  the  gentleman's  Abolition 
exchanges.  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  copied  it  with  ap 
probation  ;  and  now  does  not  blush  to  endorse  it,  foul 
and  false  as  it  is  in  every  line : 

"  The  mass  of  the  population  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the 
slave  region  of  the  South,  are  descended  from  the  transported 
convicts  and  outcasts  of  Great  Britain.  For  a  century  pre 
vious  to  the  Kevolution,  thousands  of  those  offscourings  of 
the  jails  and  hulks  of  England  were  poured  out  on  the  shores 
of  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia, — and  no- 
where  else !  Those  were  THE  PENAL  COLONIES  OF  GREAT 
BRITAIN.  Their  legislative  history  proves  it.  And  Captain 
James  Cook  was  sent  on  his  second  voyage  of  discovery  to 
seek  a  new  country  which  might  serve  as  a  substitute  for 
those  lost  convict  settlements. 

"  0  glorious  chivalry  and  hereditary  aristocracy  of  the 
South!  Peerless  first  families' of  Virginia  and  Carolina. 
1  Look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  were  hewn,  and  to  the  hole 
of  the  pit  whence  ye  were  digged/  Progeny  of  the  high- 


112  AFFIRMATIVE,  II. 

waymen,  and  horse-thieves,  and  sheep-stealers,  and  pickpock 
ets  of  Old  England  !  <  Go,  vilest  of  the  vile/  out  of  all 
union  with  communities  of  decent  origin,  and  following  your 
true  moral  and  natural  affinities,  seek  your  real  kindred  and 
political  fraternitie-s  with  those  whose  ancestors  were  turned 
from  the  ocean-path  which  yours  took,  and  founded  their 
<  chivalrous'  colonies  in  New  South  Wales  and  Van  Dieman's 
Land.  Go  to  Botany  Bay,  with  your  hereditary  lawlessness, 
violence,  and  murderous,  thievish  propensities,  and  stain  no 
longer  the  character  of  that  true  and  noble-descended  free 
American  people  who  have  too  long  endured  the  loathsome 
connection  with  you." 

But  again,  the  Age  of  Reason  and  Freedom,  an 
Abolition  paper  of  the  Parson  Pryne  school,  published 
at  the  Berlin  Heights,  Free  Love  Institution,  near  San- 
dusky,  Ohio,  after  admitting  that  the  Bible  favors  the 
institution  of  Slavery,  adds : 

"My  heart's  blood  curdles  at  the  thought.  You  may 
search  all  heathendom,  from  the  blackest  half-human  of  Ethi 
opia  down  to  the  most  refined  Caucasian,  and  you  cannot  find 
one  so  monstrous,  so  inhuman,  and  so  infernal.  You  may 
say  this  is  not  a  true  representation  of  God.  It  is  the  God 
for  whose  cause  more  human  blood  has  been  spilt  than  for 
all  other  causes  combined  —  the  God  of  the  Bible  —  the  God 
my  brother  cursed.  It  is  the  God  of  the  religion  that  ba 
nished  Roger  Williams  from  the  commonwealth  because  he 
believed  in  extending  civil  rights  outside  of  their  own  church. 
That  sacrificed  the  life  of  my  school 
fellow,  Richard  Dillingham,  in  the  Nashville  Penitentiary, 
and  in  the  Queen  City  caused  a  mother  to  murder  her  own 
child.  The  God  of  the  religion  that  upholds  the  oppression 
and  robbery  of  the  poor  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  extrava 
gance  and  vice  of  the  rich  on  the  other." 

The  gentleman  said,  in  so  many  words,  that  there 
never  could  be  a  slave  legally  held  in  bondage  on  this 
Continent — that  the  King's  Bench  decreed  three  years 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  113 

before  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  framed, 
that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  these  colonies  !  Then 
the  decrees  of  the  King's  Bench  should  be  more  bind 
ing  on  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  than  their  own 
Constitution,  and  the  laws  enacted  under  it.  What  an 
argument  for  a  man  of  respectable  pretensions  to  make  ! 
It  was  because  of  the  oppressive  decrees  of  the  King's 
Bench,  if  the  gentleman  please, — because  of  the  op 
pressive  taxes  imposed  upon  these  colonies,  that  they 
rebelled,  and  declared  the  war  of  the  Revolution. 
Verily,  if  the  decrees  of  the  King's  Bench,  passed  be 
fore  our  independence  was  declared,  relating  to  slavery, 
are  still  of  binding  force  here,  they  are  equally  bind 
ing  in  reference  to  taxes.  The  gentleman  must  be  a 
Royalist,  and  if  so,  he  had  better  repair  to  England. 

His  argument  touching  the  Constitution,  and  the 
right  of  States  to  enact  laws  favoring  slavery,  was  as 
destitute  of  reason  as  any  thing  could  be.  It  was  the 
stale  material  of  the  Abolitionists,  often  confuted,  and 
as  often  re-hashed  by  abler  hands  than  Mr.  Pryne. 
Its  shallow  commonplace  phraseology,  was  relieved  by 
the  bitterness  and  malignity  of  the  spirit  he  displayed. 

The  gentleman  commenced  his  speech,  and  then  con 
cluded  it,  in  a  whining  tone,  and  in  suppliant  language, 
complaining  that  he  was  not  distinguished  —  that  his 
name  and  fame  had  not  been  heralded  in  advance  of 
his  arrival !  These  were  items  that  the  audience  were 
aware  of,  without  his  publishing  it ! 

And  how  did  he  meet  my  charge  against  the  people 

of  New  England  for  stealing  negroes  from  the  coast 

of  Africa,  and  selling  them  into  perpetual  bondage,  for 

the  sake  of  gain  ?     Why,  gentlemen,  he  boasted  that 

10* 


114  AFFIRMATIVE,    II. 

they  had  the  enterprise  to  steal,  and  the  South  had 
not !  How  revolting  is  such  a  boast !  What  a  mon 
strosity  for  a  minister  of  our  Holy  Religion,  to  boast 
that  he  has  descended  from,  and  is  associated  with  a 
people  who  have  the  energy  and  will  to  live  by  plunder 
and  piracy ! 

Finally,  I  understood  the  gentleman  to  deny  in  most 
emphatic  terms,  that  Abraham  ever  owned  slaves,  or 
held  his  fellow  men  in  bondage,  and  to  call  for  the 
proof !  Does  the  gentleman  suppose  that  I  will  con 
sume  my  time  in  looking  out,  and  reciting  the  proof 
of  what  every  Sunday-School  scholar  in  the  land 
knows  ?  Is  he  a  teacher  in  Israel,  and  thus  ignorant 
of  the  teachings  of  God's  word  ?  If  he  will  read  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures,  he  will  there  learn  that 
Abraham,  called  the  father  of  the  faithful,  was  a  large 
slave-holder — that  upon  his  death  bed,  like  a  Southern 
planter,  he  executed  his  last  will  and  testament,  be 
queathing  his  numerous  slaves  unto  his  son  Isaac  — 
that  the  angel  of  God  stood  by  his  dying  couch,  ap 
proved  the  disposition  he  made  of  his  slave  property, 
and  cheered  the  good  old  slave-holder,  in  his  expiring 
moments,  with  the  certain,  but  then  anticipated  joys 
of  paradise  !  And  if  their  custom  were,  in  those  days, 
to  record  wills  in  Probate  Courts,  I  have  no  doubt  but 
this  angel  of  the  living  God,  was  the  subscribing  wit 
ness  ! 

Intending  to  give  the  gentleman  a  thorough  course 
of  instructions  during  this  week,  upon  the  great  and 
exciting  topic  of  American  slavery,  I  propose  to  give 
them  to  him  in  broken  doses,  and  hence  I  yield  him  the 
stand,  that  he  may  make  such  defence  as  he  feels  pre 
pared  for ! 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 

NEGATIVE,  II.  —  BY  ABRAM  PRYNE. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  — I  promise  you  that  I 
shall  not,  in  my  speech  of  this  evening,  or  on  any 
evening  during  this  debate,  go  beyond  an  hour  by  a 
second ;  and  I  regret  that  the  length  of  my  opponent's 
speech  unfortunately  crowds  me  so  much  at  the  end  of 
this  discussion,  that  I  am  obliged  to  beg  your  patience 
in  giving  me  a  fair  hearing,  as  I  have  plead  for  your 
patience  towards  him.  I  shall  now  proceed  directly  to 
my  argument. 

The  first  question  that  I  have  to  raise  here  is,  Does 
God  sanction  American  slavery?  Is  God  to  be 
regarded  as  the  supporter  and  upholder  of  American 
slavery  ?  Let  us,  for  one  moment,  measure  the  match 
less  magnitude  of  this  question,  and  see  what  it  in 
volves.  What  a  question  to  ask  in  the  light  of  the 
Divine  Government  —  whether  God  sanctions  slavery  ! 
It  is  equivalent  to  asking  whether  God  sanctions  the 
worst  theft  that  has  ever  desolated  the  world.  If,  as 
was  so  conclusively  argued  last  night,  American  slavery 
had  its  beginning  and  its  continued  existence  in  theft, 
then  you  cannot  prove  that  God  sanctions  slavery 
unless  you  prove  him  to  be  a  thief.  He  who  said, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  is  he  to  be  regarded  as  the 
abettor  of  the  mightiest  robber-foray  ever  undertaken 
against  the  human  race  ?  He  who  threw  the  guard  of 

(115) 


116  NEGATIVE,   II. 

his  own  royal  prohibition  of  theft  around  every  article 
of  property  which  man  can  acquire,  did  he  leave 
humanity  unprotected  from  man-thieves,  by  the  bul 
warks  of  his  law  ?  Nay,  more,  did  he  make  a  special 
provision  for  the  stealing  of  men.  Who  dares  look 
into  the  Bible  for  proof  that  he  is  such  a  God  ? 

Again,  it  involves  the  question  whether  God  is  the 
supporter  of  the  disruption  of  the  marriage  relation, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  marriage  ties  and  of  wholesale 
adultery.  The  gentleman  on  the  other  side  has  kindly 
vouchsafed  some  information,  all  new  to  me,  about  the 
Five  Points  in  New  York.  He  has  also  told  us  that 
there  are  Five  Points  in  the  South ;  and  that  was  not 
new  to  me,  for  I  knew  before  that  there  was  a  miniature 
Five  Points  on  each  plantation  in  the  South.  Now, 
gentlemen,  to  prove  to  you  that  slavery  does  thus  break 
up  the  marriage  relation,  let  me  read  a  single  authority  : 

"  Slaves  were  not  entitled  to  the  conditions  of  matrimony, 
and  therefore  they  had  no  relief  in  cases  of  adultery ;  nor 
were  they  the  proper  objects  of  cognation  or  affinity,  but  of 
quasi-cognation  only.'7  —  (Dr.  Taylor's  "Elements  of  the 
Civil  Law,"  p.  429.) 

God,  to  be  a  slave-holder,  must  sanction  that ;  and 
who  dare  blaspheme  Him  by  making  such  a  declaration  ? 

Again:  does  God  sanction  the  violation  of  the 
parental  relation  ?  For  slavery's  law  allows  the  master 
to  separate  father  and  child,  if  he  will.  God,  who  in 
stituted  this  relation,  must  be  proved  to  sanction  its 
continued  and  perpetual  disruption,  if  he  sanctions 
slavery.  Here  is  the  testimony  of  the  Savannah  River 
Baptist  Association  on  this  point : 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  117 

"In  1835,  the  following  query  relating  to  slaves  was  pro 
pounded  to  the  Savannah  River  Baptist  Association  of 
ministers  :  Whether,  in  case  of  involuntary  separation  of  such 
a  character  as  to  preclude  all  future  intercourse,  the  parties 
may  be  allowed  to  marry  again  ? 

"ANSWER. — That  such  separation,  among  persons  situated 
as  our  slaves  are,  is,  civilly,  a  separation  by  death,  and  they 
believe  that,  in  the  sight  of  God,  it  would  be  so  viewed.  To 
forbid  second  marriages  in  such  cases,  would  be  to  expose 
the  parties  not  only  to  greater  hardships  and  stronger 
temptations,  but  to  church  censure  for  acting  in  obedience  to 
their  masters,  who  cannot  be  expected  to  acquiesce  in  a 
regulation  at  variance  with  justice  to  the  slaves,  and  to  the 
spirit  of  that  command  which  regulates  marriage  between 
Christians.  The  slaves  are  not  free  agents,  and  a  dissolution 
by  death  is  not  more  entirely  without  their  consent  and 
beyond  their  control  than  by  such  separation. " 

Again :  do  God  and  the  Bible  sanction  robbing  the 
laborer  of  his  hire  ?  Hear  me  answer  in  the  language 
of  James: 

"  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who  have  reaped  down 
your  fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back  by  fraud,  crieth :  and 
the  cries  of  them  which  have  reaped  are  entered  into  the 
ears  of  the  Lord  of  Saboath." 

What  say  you,  workingmen  of  Philadelphia,  does 
God  sanction  the  wholesale  robbery  of  the  laborer  of 
his  wages  ? 

But  I  pass  to  another  question  :  does  God  sanction 
the  stealing  of  men,  women  and  children  ?  Hear  me 
answer  in  the  language  of  the  Bible  :  "  He  that  stealeth 
a  man  or  telleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hands, 
shall  surely  be  put  to  death,"  (and  every  one  that  takes 
the  man  from  his  own  God-appointed  ownership  steals 
him,)  ki  and  he  that  selleth  him,"  and,  to  cap  the  climax, 
to  cover  the  whole  ground  of  slavery,  he  that  holdeth 


118  NEGATIVE,    II. 

him  in  his  hands,  the  Bible  says,  shall  be  put  to  death. 
Of  course  the  children  of  slaves  are  born  with  the 
right  to  freedom,  and  he  that  enslaves  them  as  really 
steals  them  as  if  he  brought  them  in  chains  from  the 
coast  of  Africa. 

Let  me  say  that  the  nature  and  relation  of  man  for 
bid  that  God  should  sanction  the  institution  of  slavery. 
The  Bible  tells  us  that  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image,  breathed  into  him  immortality,  threw  around 
him  the  drapery  of  his  own  form ;  and  slavery 
claims  the  right  to  hang  chains  upon  the  form  of  God, 
to  load  down  with  fetters  the  human  soul,  around  which 
God  threw  the  mantle  of  his  own  beautiful  divinity  in 
the  form  in  which  he  enshrined  it.  Oh !  tell  me  not 
of  impiety  of  any  other  kind  in  the  presence  of  that 
overpowering  impiety  which  would  load  the  form  of 
God  himself  with  chains,  and  claim  to  derive  from  God 
the  right  to  do  it. 

Does  not  the  Divine  image  which  man  bears  give  us 
some  impression  with  reference  to  God's  own  regard 
for  the  sacredness  of  his  rights  ?  Does  not  the  fact 
that  God  clothed  man  in  His  own  form,  condemn  and 
convict  him  who,  with  ruthless  hand,  would  degrade  the 
soul  of  man,  and  enslave  him  ?  Has  not  the  guarantee 
of  God's  .own  form  been  thrown  around  the  soul  to 
secure  its  freedom  ?  "Will  you  hang  chains  on  God  ? 
Will  you  bind  shackles  upon  the  form  which  He  wears  ? 

I  proceed  now  more  directly  to  the  textual  argument 
which  is  involved  in  this  question,  though  I  shall  not 
be  able  to  follow  my  friend  throughout.  He  started 
with  the  statement  that  it  was  the  business  of  the  nega 
tive  to  follow  the  argument  of  the  affirmative.  I  beg 


BY   ABRAM   PRYNE  119 

leave  to  put  in  a  condition  —  that  the  affirmative  shall 
produce  an  argument  capable  of  being  followed.  Where 
that  happens  to  be  lacking,  I,  of  course,  shall  be  unable 
to  follow  it.  Who  can  follow  a  pound  of  feathers  before 
a  gale  of  wind.  While  following  the  arrangement  that 
I  had  made  before  I  listened  to  his  speech,  I  shall  pro 
ceed  a  little  out  of  his  order,  but  will  reach  every  point 
that  he  has  touched. 

In  the  first  place  he  hints  at  the  curse  said  to  have 
been  pronounced  by  Noah  on  the  descendants  of  Ham  ; 
and  this  curse  we  are  to  accept  as  a  reason  why  the 
black  man  should  be  enslaved.  Noah's  curse,  let  me 
say,  was  pronounced  on  Canaan ;  and  there  is  no  more 
proof  that  Canaan  was  a  black  man  than  that  the 
whitest  man  before  me  is  a  black  man. 

But,  not  to  dwell  on  that,  what  is  the  strength  and 
force  of  Noah's  curse  ?  The  whole  story  is  told  in  the 
verse  which  I  will  read : 

"And  Noah  awoke  from  his  wine  and  knew  what  his  sons 
had  done  unto  him,  and  he  said,  Cursed  be  Canaan ;  a  ser 
vant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren/' 

What  a  terrible  gap  must  be  filled  up  to  reach  the 
inference  that  this  curse  of  drunken  Noah,  just  waking 
up  from  the  effect  of  his  over-dose  of  wine,  carries  with 
it  the  sanction  of  God !  Who  says  that  God  cursed 
Canaan?  The  Bible  makes  no  such  statement;  it 
merely  tells  us  of  Noah,  that  on  suddenly  rising  after 
a  drunken  fit,  and  supposing  that  his  grandson  had  * 
mistreated  him,  he,  as  drunken  men  are  apt  to  do  — 

"Unpacked  his  heart  with  words, 
And  fell  to  cursing,  like  a  very  drab."* 

*  A  scullion. 


120  NEGATIVE,    II. 

But  who  can  give  us,  from  the  Bible  or  from  any 
other  source,  the  shadow  of  evidence  that  God  ever 
sanctioned  that  curse  ?  I  call  on  my  opponent  for  the 
proof. 

God  is  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  angry  words 
of  a  patriarch  in  his  wine,  nor  for  all  the  deeds  of  the 
patriarchs.  The  Bible  states  facts — but  by  no  means 
holds  God  responsible  for  the  existence  of  many  of  its 
facts.  Nothing  can  claim  his  sanction  unless  that 
sanction  is  plainly  recorded. 

Even  if  there  was  some  force  in  Noah's  curse,  it  was 
fulfilled  in  the  case  of  the  Canaanites.  But  not  stop 
ping  to  urge  that  argument,  let  me  ask  who  made  the 
South  the  executors  of  Noah,  to  carry  out  his  curse  ? 
When  did  they  take  out  letters  testamentary  on  Noah's 
estate  ?  Canaan  was  to  be  a  servant  of  servants.  Are 
the  slaveholders  servants  ?  Even  did  I  admit  (which  I 
do  not)  that  Noah's  curse  had  some  force  in  enslaving 
somebody  to  the  Jews,  what  a  jump  of  logic  to  conclude 
thence  that  Southern  men  have  a  right  to  enslave  the 
negroes ! 

And  now  I  come  to  the  case  of  Abraham.  We  are 
told  that  Abraham  was  a  slaveholder.  Gentlemen,  I 
meet  that  declaration  with  a  plump  denial ;  and  I  shall 
satisfy  you  in  a  moment  that  I  do  so  on  the  best  ground 
of  argument. 

•»       In  the  first  place,  Abraham's  head  servant  was  his 

i  lieutenant  in  war,  who,  as   the  leader  of  118  armed 

men,  went  forth  on  a  foray  against  the  surrounding 

nations.     When  gentlemen  will  arm  their  slaves,  and 

\  lead  them  out  into  an  unpopulous  country,  and  bring 

them  back  again  safely,  none  rebelling,  though  there 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  121 

be  118  slaves  to  one  white  man  who  is  in  command  — 
then  they  may  begin  to  argue  some  analogy  between 
their  system  and  the  Abrahamic. 

Again,  I  prove  to  you  that  Abraham's  servants  were 
not  slaves,  from  the  fact  that  Abraham's  head  servant 
was  declared  by  Abraham  to  be  his  heir  —  the  natural 
and  lawful  heir  of  his  whole  property.  The  slave  laws 
of  the  South  affirm  that  a  slave  can  own  nothing,  hold 
nothing ;  that  he  cannot  be  the  party  to  a  contract,  or 
have  any  tenure  of  property. 

Here  was  a  man  who  did  own  and  did  hold  property 
—  who  was  heir-in-law  of  Abraham,  the  richest  man 
of  his  day ;  yet  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  system 
of  servitude  then  prevailing  is  analogous  to  the  system 
of  slavery  now  existing  in  the  South,  which  declares  a 
slave  to  be  goods  and  chatties  personal,  to  all  intents, 
purposes,  and  constructions  whatsoever  —  unable  to 
own  anything,  hold  anything,  or  be  a  party  to  a  con 
tract.  Furnish  arms  to  your  slaves  at  the  South ;  put 
property  in  their  hands  ;  give  them  some  position  that 
was  occupied  by  Abraham's  feudal  retainers  (if  I  may 
borrow  the  language  of  the  middle  ages) :  and  you 
will  see  how  long  you  will  be  able  to  hold  them  as 
slaves.  Fulfil  one  out  of  six  of  the  conditions  of  that 
Abrahamic  system  of  servitude,  and  you  break  down 
a  dyke,  whose  removal  would  cause  the  dark  waters  of 
slavery  at  the  South  to  rush  out  with  such  a  flood  that 
no  man  could  stem  its  tide. 

Again  :  Abraham's  head  servant  went  with  his  son 
to  get  a  wife.  Abraham  trusted  him  to  go  on  a  long 
journey,  upon  a  mission  that  was  dearest  to  his  own 

heart.     Travelling  dav  after  day,  with   a  retinue  of 
11 


122  NEGATIVE,   II. 

camels  and  companies  of  men  and  women,  through  a 
wild  country,  into  which  he  could  readily  have  fled — • 
I  ask  you,  if  he  bad  heen  a  slave  —  subject  to  the  lash 
—  goods  and  chattels  personal  —  who  does  not  believe 
that  he  would  have  run  away?  The  truth  is,  that 
Abraham  was  a  prince,  and  his  followers  and  military 
retainers,  who  tilled  his  land,  and  attended  his  flocks, 
were,  in  the  language  of  the  East,  called  his  servants. 
This  was  the  relation  between  him  and  them,  and  it 
did  not  at  all  involve  the  chattel  principle  which  is  the 
soul  of  American  slavery. 

The  word  "servant"  in  the  Old  Testament  no  more 
necessarily  means  "  slave"  than  it  does  in  the  language 
of  New  England  or  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  It  is  a 
common  term;  and  I  offer  as  my  authority  one  of 
Philadelphia's  noblest  sons,  who,  having  carefully  given 
his  vast  learning  to  the  investigation  of  this  question, 
has  announced  his  conclusion  that  the  word  "  servant," 
as  applied  to  persons  in  the  Bible,  determines  nothing 
with  reference  to  the  tenure  by  which  they  were  held, 
and  would  apply  to  a  New  England  servant  as  well  as 
to  any  other.  I  speak  of  the  testimony  of  Albert 
Barnes,  who  states  his  conclusion  in  these  words : 

"  From  this  examination  of  the  terms  used  to  denote 
servitude  among  the  Hebrews,  it  follows  that  nothing  can  be 
inferred  from  the  mere  use  of  the  word  in  regard  to  the  kind 
of  servitude  which  existed  in  the  days  of  the  patriarchs/' — 
Barnes  on  Slavery. 

Again,  Mr.  Barnes  says : 

"  The  Hebrew  words,  eledh,  abodha,  and  abudda,  rendered 
commonly  servant)  service,  and  servants,  (Job  i.  3;)  are 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  123 

derived  from  aladli,  meaning  1o  lalor,  to  work,  to  do  work. 
It  occurs  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  some  hundreds  of  times 
in  various  forms  of  the  word,  and  is  never  rendered  slaves, 
but  commonly  servants,  and  serve. 

But  I  have  another  question  to  ask :  Did  everything 
done  by  the  patriarchs  receive  the  approbation  of  God  ? 
Not  at  all ;  and  the  fact  that  a  system  of  servitude 
obtained  among  the  patriarchs  cannot  prove  that  it 
had  the  Divine  approbation,  unless  you  can  show  that 
it  is  sustained  and  sanctioned  by  the  letter  of  the 
Bible.  The  mere  fact  of  its  existence  proves  nothing ; 
for  all  these  patriarchs  were  guilty  of  wrong-doings. 
Jacob  filched  from  his  brother  Esau  his  birthright  by 
a  trick ;  Abraham  denied  his  own  wife,  and,  by  the 
denial,  subjected  her  to  the  danger  of  prostitution  ;  and 
even  Noah,  as  we  have  already  seen,  got  drunk.  The 
Bible  states  these  facts  without  comment,  just  as  it 
states  the  fact  that  these  patriarchs  held  servants ; 
and  by  the  bare  statement  of  the  fact,  it  sanctions  one 
as  much  as  the  other. 

In  the  next  place,  I  deny  any  analogy  between  this 
system  of  servitude  and  American  slavery ;  because, 
in  the  whole  Jewish  economy,  no  man  ever  sold  a 
servant.  I  defy  my  opponent  to  find  an  instance,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  Bible,  where  a  Jew  is 
ever  said  to  have  sold  a  servant  after  he  came  into  his 
possession.  Therefore,  those  servants  were  not  subject 
to  the  laws  of  property,  as  are  the  slaves  of  the  South 
at  this  day.  Had  they  been  "  goods  and  chattels 
personal,"  we  should  have  had  some  record  of  their 
sale  by  their  master.  But  no  such  record  can  be  found ; 
and  the  inference  is  irresistible  that  they  were  not 


124  NEGATIVE,    II. 

property.     Again,  you  will  remember  that  passage  of 
the  Bible  which  reads : 

"  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant  which 
is  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee." 

Thus  we  see  an  "  underground  railroad"  had  come 
to  the  surface  all  over  Judea.  Every  servant  that  felt 
oppressed  had  the  Divine  sanction  to  flee  anywhere  he 
pleased,  and,  by  the  prohibition  of  God,  no  man  should 
send  him  back  to  his  master,  but  all  were  commanded 
to  allow  him  to  remain  unmolested.  Proclaim  that  law 
to  the  bondmen  who  tremble  at  the  crack  of  your  whip  ; 
let  the  declaration  go'  forth  as  the  law  of  the  South 
that  no  fugitive  act  exists,  that  every  slave  who  can 
make  good  his  escape  shall  be  free ;  and  in  a  fortnight, 
the  population  across  the  lakes  in  Canada  will  receive 
such  an  accession,  and  the  South  become  so  nearly  de 
populated,  that  gentlemen  who  now  live  by  squeezing 
out  of  the  poor  oppressed  negroes  the  coats  they  wear, 
and  the  dinners  they  eat,  and  the  jewelery  they  flourish 
in  Northern  cities,  will  be  compelled  to  work  for  a 
living. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  system  of  servitude 
that  obtained  among  the  Jews,  (and  I  still  insist  that 
it  was  as  far  removed  from  the  chattel-principle,  the 
dark  feature  of  American  slavery,  as  is  the  relation  be 
tween  a  New  England  servant-girl  and  her  mistress) — 
whatever  may  have  been  the  system  that  obtained, 
every  forty-nine  years  it  was  abolished  by  the  jubilee. 
Every  forty-nine  years,  liberty  was  "  proclaimed 
throughout  the  land,  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

Every  forty-nine  years,  one  grand,  universal,  aboli- 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  125 

tion  jubilee  swept  over  the  whole  land  of  Judea.  The 
gentleman  on  the  other  side  tells  us  that  his  system  in 
the  South  is  modelled  after  the  Mosaic.  Is  it  not  time, 
after  two  hundred  years  of  slavery,  to  have  four  jubi 
lees  at  once.  Stick  to  the  letter  of  the  Bible  on  this 
point  if  you  will ;  make  your  system  conform  in  this 
particular  to  that  which  obtained  in  Judea,  and  slavery 
will  be  swept  down,  and  pass  away  as  the  fog  before  a 
summer's  morning. 

I  do  not  stop  to-night  to  enter  largely  into  the  argu 
ment  with  reference  to  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  ;  nor  have,  thus  far,  more  than  glanced  at  the 
argument  of  the  Old  Testament.  But  I  must  be 
allowed  to  say  that  all  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  are  against  slavery  ;  and  American  slavery  is  so 
terribly  inimical  to  the  whole  Bible,  that  the  South  is 
thrown  into  an  agony  of  fear  the  moment  a  half  dozen 
poor,  ragged  slaves  gather  in  the  basement  of  some 
church,  in  order  to  be  taught  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament.  Sir,  if  the  Bible  so  strongly  sanctions 
slavery,  why  do  you  not,  like  sensible  men,  teach  it  to 
your  slaves  ?  Why  not  teach  every  slave  to  read  it, 
that  he  may  have  the  full  benefit  of  feeling  that  he  is 
under  the  influence  of  a  Divine  God-appointed  system  ? 
"  Search  the  Scriptures?"  is  the  command  of  God  ;  but 
slavery  says  to  the  slaves,  "  If  you  dare  attempt  to  look 
into  the  Scriptures  —  if  you  gather  together  to  gain 
Scriptural  instruction  —  we  will  send  our  creatures  to 
disperse  you  under  the  crack  of  the  lash.  You  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  learn  to  read  the  Bible." 

Why,  if  slavery  and  the  Bible  are  so  entirely  in  affin 
ity,  if  each  so  admirably  supports  the  other,  how  foolish 
11* 


126  NEGATIVE,     IT. 

are  these  gentlemen  of  the  South  that  they  do  not  teach 
every  slave  to  read  the  Scriptures  !  God  reveals  his 
•will  to  man  in  the  Bible.  Slavery  says  to  four  millions 
of  her  hoasted  Christians  of  the  South,  "  If  you  learn 
to  read  that  Bible,  I  will  score  your  backs  with  the 
lash  until  the  skin  shall  peel  off,"  and  yet  attempts  to 
prove  that  that  same  Bible  which  God  revealed  for  all 
men  sanctions  that  oppression  which  prevents  them  from 
reading  it. 

I  notice  to-night  only  a  few  of  the  passages  which 
the  gentleman  has  quoted  in  his  speech.  I  would,  at 
this  point,  merely  say,  in  a  general  way,  that  just  in 
proportion  as  you  make  an  impression  that  slavery  is 
sustained  by  the  Bible,  you  bring  the  Bible  into  scorn 
and  contempt.  I  say  that  the  slave  who  believes  that 
the  Bible  supports  slavery,  ought  to  hate  it.  I  say 
that,  if  the  slave  believes  that  the  religion  taught  him  at 
the  South  makes  him  a  slave,  he  ought  to  trample  it 
under  his  feet.  Such  enlightenment,  such  philosophy, 
such  Christianity,  are  so  far  from  being  a  blessing  to 
him,  that  the  heaviest  curse  the  dark  spirit  of  slavery 
has  ever  inflicted  upon  the  soul  of  the  slave,  is  the 
religion  of  the  South  under  which  she  professes  to 
hold  him  in  bonds. 

My  opponent  said,  in  his  speech  of  last  night : 

"  When  Christ  was  doomed  by  a  cruel  Roman  law  to  its 
most  ignominious  condemnation,  he  did  not  so  much  as 
resist  it." 

What  would  he  have  us  infer  —  that,  therefore,  the 
cruel  Roman  law  which  hung  him  upon  the  cross  was 
right  ?  Is  that  the  inference  ?  Does  he  intend  to 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  127 

argue  that,  because  I  go  for  the  repeal  of  these  cruel 
laws  against  the  slave,  I  am  violating  the  example  of 
Christ  ?  Does  it  follow  that  the  slaveholders'  laws  of 
the  South  are  right,  because  Christ  did  not  resist  laws 
equally  tyrannous  ?  By  no  means.  For  Christ  did 
not  resist  his  own  crucifixion;  and  if  nothing  but  what 
Christ  resisted  is  wrong,  then  Christ's  crucifixion  was 
not  wrong ! 

The  gentleman  on  the  other  side  tells  us  that  Jesus 
never  denounced  slavery.  Has  he  never  read  the 
words:  "Undo  the  heavy  burdens?"  A  crushing  I 
burden  is  laid  on  the  back  of  the  poor  slave  at  birth, 
which  he  carries  all  the  days  of  his  life,  until  he  sinks 
under  it  into  his  grave.  Our  Revolutionary  fathers 
rebelled  against  a  burden  which,  compared  with  sla 
very,  is  as  a  man's  little  finger  to  his  loins;  and  if 
their  rebellion  was  for  a  moment  justifiable,  then  the 
slave  would  be  doubly  justified  in  asserting  his  freedom 
with  arms  in  his  hands.  In  the  name  of  God  and 
humanity,  what  is  heavier  than  the  burden  of  slavery  ? 
Has  he  never  read  the  words:  "Break  every  yoke,  and 
let  the  oppressed  go  free?"  When  every  yoke  shall 
be  broken,  I  take  it,  the  horrid  yoke  of  American  sla 
very  will  be  broken.  I  call  upon  those  gentlemen  who 
hold  this  theory,  to  convince  me  that  they  believe  the 
Bible,  by  carrying  out  this  palpable  and  incontrovert 
ible  passage,  by  setting  forth  to  "break  every  yoke 
and  let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

Again:  the  prophet  Isaiah,  in  describing  the  pur 
pose  of  Christ's  mission  to  the  world,  uses  thisx beauti 
ful  language : 


128  NEGATIVE,    II. 

"The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me;  because  tho 
Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
meek ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to 
proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  pri- 
son  to  them  that  are  bound  :  To  proclaim  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God ; 
to  comfort  all  that  mourn/' 

Thus  is  Christ  revealed  as  a  universal  emancipator. 
Shall  I  be  told  again  that  Christ  has  never  said  a  word 
against  slavery  ?  If  I  should  be,  you  will  agree  with 
me  that  I  am  not  bound  to  believe  it. 

Has  he  never  read:  "All  things  whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto 
them?"  And  would  he  that  men  should  doom  him  to 
a  life  of  bondage;  that  they  should  sell  his  wife  on 
the  auction-block,  and  his  daughters  to  a  slave-trader  ? 
Would  he  have  the  light  of  knowledge  shut  out  from 
his  soul,  and  the  Bible  denied  to  his  children  ?  Why, 
then,  do  this  to  others,  and  still  claim  to  be  a  servant, 
nay,  a  minister,  of  Christ  ? 

My  friend  has  told  us,  both  last  night  and  to-night, 
that  Abolitionists  themselves  have  complained  of  the 
colored  people ;  and  he  mentions  Gerritt  Smith  as  one 
who  has  done  so.  He  has;  but  there  is  something  of 
which  he  is  at  this  very  time  complaining  more  loudly, 
making  his  own  deep-toned  voice  reverberate  over  the 
hills  of  New  York  State.  He  is  proclaiming  the 
wickedness  of  the  South,  which,  while  it  has  for  ages 
crushed  the  slave  under  its  heel,  is  now  astonished  that 
he  does  not  rise  into  the  dignity  of  an  intellectual  man 
at  one  leap.  He  knows,  as  we  all  do,  that  the  vices 
of  the  slave  have  been  learned  on  the  plantation,  and 
that  no  people  can  be  expected  to  rise  in  a  moment 


BY   ABRAM    PEYNE.  129 

from  the  effects  of  such  a  horrid  education.  The 
South  denies  all  means  of  intellectual  culture  to  the 
slave ;  flogs  him  for  learning  to  read ;  abuses  him  for 
every  struggling  effort  of  his  mind  to  gain  culture; 
and  then,  after  having  put  out  the  light  of  intellect 
from  his  soul,  is  astonished  that  he  is  intellectually 
weak,  and  gives  such  weakness  as  the  cowardly  reason 
for  continuing  to  abuse  him. 

But  if  gentlemen  think  that  the  fugitive  slaves  of 
this  country  are  men  lacking  in  intellect,  I  can  only 
Bay,  that  had  my  opponent  accepted  the  offer  of  Fre 
derick  Douglass  to  meet  him  in  this  debate,  he  would 
have  gone  back  to  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  with  his 
notions  of  the  want  of  intellect  of  the  African  all 
upset. 

And  you  will  excuse  me  for  saying,  in  this  connec 
tion,  that  had  he  met  another  colored  man  whom  I  can 
mention  —  darker  than  Frederick  Douglass,  who  is  a 
mulatto  —  a  real  African  of  the  olden  type,  six  feet 
two  inches  in  his  shoes,  and  weighing  over  two  hun 
dred  pounds,  he  would  have  thought  himself  in  a  Chi 
nese  museum  of  wit,  sarcasm,  and  logic,  where  pyro 
technics  were  flashing  around  him  from  the  brain  of 
Samuel  R.  Ward. 

I  only  regret  that  I  have  not  his  power  of  argument, 
of  diction,  and  of  rhetoric,  with  which  to  meet  my 
friend  to-night. 

In  regard  to  Gerritt  Smith's  complaining  of  the 
colored  people,  has  he  not  shown  his  genuine  kindness 
of  heart  towards  them,  his  love  for  them,  by  telling 
them  their  faults ;  while  he  is,  in  his  efforts  to  assist 
them,  distributing  among  them,  with  princely  liberal- 


130  NEGATIVED   II. 

ity,  his  own  fortune.  And  the  best  thing  to  be  said 
yet  of  Gerritt  Smith's  good  deeds  in  that  direction,  is, 
that  he  is  to-day  on  the  stump  in  my  own  glorious 
Empire  State  as  a  candidate  for  Governor,  under  the 
pledge  that  if  he  should  be  elected,  and  an  effort 
should  be  made  to  take  a  fugitive  slave  from  the  State 
of  New  York,  he  will  call  out  the  whole  military  force 
of  the  State  to  resist  it.  Such  lukewarm  friends  of 
the  African  as  that,  may  God  multiply !  And,  gentle 
men,  let  me  say  that,  when  this  debate  shall  have  been 
concluded,  I  shall,  with  pleasure,  hasten  home  to  my 
native  State,  to  take  the  stump  for  Mr.  Smith. 

And  now  let  me  refer  to  another  point  in  the  argu 
ment  of  my  opponent.  We  have  had  brought  to  our 
notice  the  case  of  Paul's  apprehension  of  Onesimus ; 
and  it  has  been  urged  that  Onesimus  was  a  fugitive 
slave,  and  Paul  a  slave-catcher.  Let  us  see  what  was 
the  language  which  Paul  used  in  writing  to  Philemon  : 

"  Receive  him  not  now  as  a  servant." 

Then  Paul  did  not  send  him  back  as  a  servant,  but 
5  as  a  freeman. 

"  Receive  him  not  as  a  servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a 
brother  beloved,  specially  to  me,  but  how  much  more  unto 
thee,  both  in  the  flesh  and  in  the  Lord  ?     If  thou  count  me, 
'••    therefore,  a  partner,  receive  him  as  myself." 

I  suppose  my  friend  will  not  contend  that  Paul 
wished  Philemon  to  receive  him  with  the  cat-o'-nine 
tails.  I  suppose  that  he  will  not  agree  that  Paul 
wished  Philemon  to  place  him  in  the  stocks,  and  put 
him  on  bread  and  water,  and  baste  his  back,  and 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  131 

anoint  it  with  brine  and  pepper.  He  will  not  argue 
that  this  is  what  Paul  meant  by  his  injunction  that 
Onesimus  should  be  received  as  a  brother — "not  now 
a  servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  beloved." 
So  it  seems  Paul  was  an  emancipationist ;  that  he  set 
Onesimus  free,  and  sent  him  back,  with  the  apostolic 
command  to  his  master  that  he  should  let  him  remain 
free.  This  is  your  boasted  argument  from  Paul's  let 
ter  to  Philemon.  Practice  Paul's  teaching  here,  and 
I  am  content.  I  would  be  willing  to  send  all  the  fugi 
tives  in  Canada  back  in  the  same  way  Paul  sent  back 
Onesimus,  with  an  order  for  free  papers  and  a  brother's 
inheritance  in  the  estate,  provided  you  would  guarantee 
that  the  slaveholders  would  receive  them,  "not  as  ser 
vants,  but  as  brothers  beloved." 

I  would  refer,  also,  to  the  case  of  Ziba,  the  servant 
of  Saul.  He,  we  are  told,  had  twenty  servants  him 
self.  He  therefore  held  property,  and  could  not  be  a 
slave  ;  for,  according  to  the  slave  law  of  the  South,  no 
slave  can  hold  property.  He  was  the  servant  of  Saul 
in  the  sense  in  which  all  the  retainers  of  captains  are 
called  their  servants.  They  were  mere  feudal  military 
retainers.  In  this  sense  the  word  "servant"  is  applied 
to  them;  and  that  is  all  the  force  that  it  has  in  all 
these  cases. 

Paul  is  quoted  again  as  saying 

"Art  thou  called  being  a  servant  ?  care  not  for  it :  but  if 
thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it  rather." 

That  is  to  say,  If  you  are  a  slave  and  the  cars  of 
the  underground  railroad  come  along,  jump  on  and  get 
your  freedom  if  you  can.  If  you  are  a  servant,  bear  it 


132  NEGATIVE,   II. 

patiently  while  you  must,  but  the  moment  an  oppor 
tunity  occurs  for  you  to  escape,  make  the  best  of  it, 
and  get  away  as  soon  as  you  can. 

Of  course  Paul  advised  servants  to  be  obedient  and 
get  along  as  smoothly  as  they  could  while  compelled  to 
remain  in  that  position.  I  would  give  the  same  advice, 
would  say  show  no  impatience,  no  restlessness,  let 
your  master  think  you  are  passive  and  content,  while 
your  condition  is  inevitable,  but  "  If  thou  mayest  be 
free  use  it  rather,"  and  when  the  train  arrives  on  the 
underground  railroad  take  a  through  ticket. 

We  are  referred  to  passages  exhorting  the  slaves  to 
patience  and  forbearance ;  and  in  regard  to  these,  you 
will  mark  this,  that  they  all  condole  with  him  as  suffer 
ing  a  very  hard  lot,  telling  him  to  bear  it  in  the  name 
of  God  and  Christ.  They  tell  him  that  to  bear  buffet 
ing  is  creditable  to  him.  But  they  all  plead  that  he  is 
not  in  his  right  condition,  and  urge  him  to  bear  it  until 
he  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  get  away.  Such  passa 
ges  as  these  the  pro-slavery  side  of  the  argument  may 
make  the  most  of. 

The  argument  is  urged  that  as  Jesus  did  not  de 
nounce  slavery  by  name,  it  follows  that  he  did  not  re 
gard  it  as  a  crime.  This  argument  is  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  everything  that  Christ  did  not  de 
nounce  in  set  terms  is  innocent.  It  will  take  but  a 
moment  to  show  the  glaring  fallacy  of  this  proposition. 
But  one  sermon  of  Jesus  has  come  down  to  us,  and  the 
report  of  that  is  by  no  means  full.  That  sermon  was 
addressed  to  non-slave-holding  Jews,  and  not  especially 
to  slave-holding  Romans,  and  of  course  that  single  ser 
mon  could  not  go  minutely  into  the  various  questions 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  133 

of  civil  rights,  social  conditions,  and  political  economy, 
•which  have  since  agitated  the  world.     But  he  did  lay 
down    broad    and  deep,  great    first  principles,  which 
when  carried  out  would  overturn  every  form  of  oppres 
sion.     He  did  not  denounce  the  cruelties  and  brutali 
ties  of  the  gladiatorial  shows  of  the  Roman  Amphithe 
ater,  by  name,  nor  did  he  directly  discuss  the  wicked 
ness  of  the  Roman  government  in  detail,  but  does  it 
therefore   follow  that  he    sanctioned  all  these  ?     His  < 
short  ministry  of  only  three  years,  shut  him  up  to  the 
necessity   of   dealing   in   first  principles,  leaving  the 
future  to  develop  and  apply  them  to  all  phases  of  the 
after  life  of  man,  and  these  first  principles  are  at  all 
points  at  enmity  with  American  slavery. 

Here  are  a  few  passages  from  the  Bible  which  show 
its  teachings  on  human  rights : 

"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

"  Let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

"  Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land  to  all  the  inhabit 
ants  thereof." 

"  Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  persons  of  the  poor  nor  honor 
the  persons  of  the  mighty,  but  in  righteousness  shalt  thou 
judge  thy  neighbor." 

"  Envy  not  thou  the  oppressor,  and  choose  none  of  his 
ways. 

"  Do  justice  to  the  afflicted  and  needy,  rid  them  out  of  the 
Hands  of  the  wicked." 

"  Execute  judgment  and  justice ;  take  away  your  exaltations 
from  my  people  saith  the  Lord." 

"  He  that  oppresseth  the  poor  reproacheth  his  maker.'' 

11 1  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  the  adulterer,  and 
against  false  swearers,  and  against  those  that  oppress  the 
hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  and 
that  turn  aside  the  stranger  from  his  right,  and  fear  not  me, 
saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 

12 


134  NEGATIVE,    II. 

(<  He  that  stealeth  a  man,  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  bo 
found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death/' 

11  Whoso  stoppeth  his  ears  at  the  cry  of  the  poor,  he  also 
shall  cry,  but  shall  not  be  heard/' 

"Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord;  ye  have  not  hearkened 
unto  me,  in  proclaiming  liberty,  every  one  to  his  brother, 
and  every  man  to  his  neighbor  :  behold,  I  proclaim  a  liberty 
for  you,  saith  the  Lord,  to  the  sword,  to  the  pestilence,  and 
to  the  famine;  and  I  will  make  you  to  be  removed  into  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth/' 

"  Call  no  man  master,  neither  be  ye  called  masters/' 

"All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to 
you  do  ye  even  so  to  them/' 

"Be  kindly  affectionate  one  to  another  with  brotherly 
love;  in  honor  preferring  one  another." 

"  Do  good  to  all  men,  as  ye  have  opportunity." 

"Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  you  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again  with  the  yoke  of 
bondage/' 

"  If  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it  rather." 

"  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire." 

"  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty." 

The  Baltimore  Sun  while  criticising  the  work  of 
some  clerical  flunky  who  published  a  Bible  defence  of 
slavery  a  few  years  ago,  excoriates  him  as  follows : 

"Bible  defence  of  slavery  !  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
Bible  defence  of  slavery  at  the  present  day.  Slavery  in  the 
United  States  is  a  social  institution,  originating  in  the  con 
venience  and  cupidity  of  our  ancestors,  existing  by  State 
la'ws,  and  recognized  to  a  certain  extent  —  for  the  recovery 
of  slave  property  —  by  the  Constitution.  And  nobody  would 
pretend  that,  if  it  were  inexpedient  and  unprofitable  for  any 
man  or  any  State  to  continue  to  hold  slaves,  they  would  be 
bound  to  do  so  on  the  ground  of  a  "  Bible  defence"  of  it. 
Slavery  is  recorded  in  the  Bible,  and  approved,  with  many 
degrading  characteristics.  War  is  recorded  in  the  Bible, 
and  approved,  under  what  seems  to  us  the  extreme  of  cruelty. 
But  are  slavery  and  war  to  endure  for  ever  because  we  find 
them  in  the  Bible  ?  or  are  they  to  cease  at  once  and  for  ever 
because  the  Bible  inculcates  peace  and  brotherhood  ?" 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  135 

My  opponent,  as  you  remember,  last  night  denounced 
the  slave  trade  in  language  such  as  I  could  not  com 
mand  myself.  To-night  he  tells  us  the  slave  trade  is 
sanctioned  by  God  and  the  Bible.  Which  end  of  his 
argument  shall  I  take  —  the  argument  of  last  night  or 
the  argument  of  to-night  ?  But  I  have  driven  him,  as 
I  knew  I  should,  to  plant  his  feet  on  the  slave-trade  as 
the  only  means  of  logically  supporting  slavery  itself. 
He  has  amended  his  logic,  though  his  premises  are  false. 

We  have  been  told  again  to-night  that  all  the  oriental 
nations  were  slave-holding  nations.  Let  us  for  one 
moment  dig  up  from  the  past  their  history,  and  see 
how  God  himself  shows  his  sanction  or  disapprobation 
of  slavery.  Egypt  held  slaves  ;  for  430  years  the  Jews 
were  slaves  in  Egypt.  But  escaping,  they  all  took  the 
underground  railroad  which  led  through  the  Red  Sea. 
Their  oppressors  followed  on  a  grand  national  slave 
hunt,  but  God  himself  being  against  them,  the  waves 
of  the  sea  swallowed  them  up.  Pharaoh  and  his  entire 
host  were  swept  away  by  the  besom  of  destruction  in 
the  attempt  to  get  back  their  fugitive  slaves.  God 
sanctions  slavery,  does  he  ?  and  yet  he  causes  the  sea 
to  swallow  up  an  army  of  hundreds  of  thousands  who 
are  attempting  to  regain  possession  of  their  fugitive 
slaves  ! 

Again :  throughout  the  history  of  the  Jews,  God  is 
continually  pointing  back  to  the  days  of  Egyptian 
slavery,  to  warn  the  Jews  against  oppression,  saying 
to  them  in  effect,  "  Do  not  forget  that  you  were  slaves 
in  Egypt ;  do  not  forget  the  wrongs  under  which  you 
Buffered ;  do  not  forget  the  horrors  of  that  system,  and 
do  not  inflict  them  upon  others."  And  if  we  wish  to 


136  NEGATIVE,    II. 

follow  the  history  of  Egypt  and  see  what  effect  slavery 
had  in  perpetuating  her  existence  and  her  glory,  let  the 
dust  that  is  gathered  more  than  sixty  feet  deep  at  the 
foot  of  the  Pyramids  since  art  and  glory  left  the  land 
of  Egypt  tell  us  what  effect  such  institutions  have  had 
upon  her  existence  and  her  glory.  The  desolations  of 
Egypt  to-day  proclaim  aloud  to  the  world  God's  stand 
ing  disapprobation  of  the  cruelty  of  Egyptian  oppression. 
Take  the  case  of  Babylon,  if  you  please.  The  Bible 
declares  that  Babylon  was  destroyed  for  her  oppression, 
because  she  dealt  in  slaves  and  the  souls  of  men. 
Again  :  all  men  at  all  conversant  with  her  history  know 
that  Rome  was  destroyed  because  of  the  very  same 
corruptions  which  are  now  eating  in  upon  the  vitality 
of  our  own  nation.  Rome  was  ultimately  ruined  by 
the  inroads  of  her  system  of  slavery. 

Thus,  any  man  familiar  with  the  history  of  nations 
sees  at  a  glance  that  the  grand  leveller  of  all  national 
greatness  and  glory  has  been  the  corruptions  engendered 
by  oppression  among  nations  holding  slaves. 

With  reference  to  the  cruelty  practised  upon  South 
ern  plantations,  I  have  said  nothing.  I  do  not  come 
here  to  ask  that  slavery  shall  be  abolished  because  the 
masters  of  the  South  whip  their  slaves  cruelly — because 
they  dress  them  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  protect 
them  from  the  cold  —  because  they  hunt  them  with 
blood-hounds  —  or  because  of  any  of  the  horrid  inflic 
tions  upon  their  persons  which  characterize  the  entire 
field  of  Southern  society.  I  come  to  ask  that  slavery 
shall  be  abolished,  because  the  very  condition  itself,  in 
its  best  and  happiest  form,  is  such  an  outrage  against 
God  and  humanity  that  it  ought  not  to  exist  on  earth. 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  137 

Dress  your  slave  in  silks,  feed  him  upon  the  choicest 
viands  of  the  land,  \vait  upon  him  yourself  at  your  own 
table,  give  him  all  the  luxuries  with  which  you  can 
surround  him,  yet  still  insist  that  he  shall  be  your 
slave,  and  I  will  still  demand  his  freedom  with  a  voice 
as  earnest  as  though  he  were  suffering  from  the  most 
terrible  inflictions  of  cruelty.  While  I  know  that 
slavery  is  cruel  —  while  I  feel  the  deepest  indignation 
at  the  wrong  and  outrage  which  it  heaps  upon  the 
slave, — yet  apart  from  all  this,  the  condition  of  slavery 
is  in  itself  the  deepest  and  most  damning  wrong,  and 
the  mere  incidents  are  not  to  be  brought  in  question 
in  an  argument  of  this  sort. 

My  opponent  has  given  us  a  long  extract  from  some 
man's  plantation  rules,  wherein  he  tells  his  overseers 
that  they  must  listen  to  the  complaints  of  the  slave. 
Would  my  friend  regard  it  as  a  peculiar  kindness  that 
some  man  should  take  him  and  make  him  a  slave,  and 
then,  out  of  regard  for  him,  should  command  somebody 
to  listen  to  his  complaints  ? 

Perhaps  it  will  be  replied  that  slavery  should  not  lay 
its  hand  upon  the  white  man.  The  color  of  the  cuticle, 
I  take  it,  does  not  measure  the  worth  of  humanity  ;  and 
as  you  and  I  would  not  ask  for  some  man  to  complain 
to,  but  would  demand  before  God  and  the  law,  the  right 
to  protect  our  own  rights,  and  shield  ourselves  under 
the  government,  so  I  ask  the  same  for  the  slave. 

These  plantation  rules  provide  that  the  slave's  bed 
ding  shall  be  examined.  The  bed  that  Frederick 
Douglass  had,  when  in  slavery,  would  not,  according 
to  his  description,  have  taken  a  very  long  examination. 
It  was  an  old  bag,  into  which  he  used  to  crawl  head 
12* 


138  NEGATIVE,    II. 

foremost.  That  was  his  bed  for  the  winter  —  all  that 
he  had.  The  bedding  to  be  examined  would,  I  appre 
hend,  generally  be  found  to  be  the  soft  side  of  a  plank, 
or  the  hard  ground.  Though  some  gentlemen  may 
provide  better  for  their  slaves,  yet  I  know  that  on  the 
sugar  and  cotton  plantations  this  is  the  general  charac 
ter  of  the  bedding. 

Again :  it  is  affirmed  that  American  slavery  ought 
to  be  perpetuated  because  it  improves  the  morals  of  the 
slave.  The  slaves,  it  is  said,  become  members  of 
Southern  churches,  and  are  made  religious  men.  Let 
me  say  that  the  fact  that  the  slave  is  not  morally 
beneath  the  heathen  does  not  show  that  slavery  im 
proves  his  morals ;  it  only  shows  that  he  has  native 
moral  instincts  sufficient  to  enable  him,  even  in  spite  of 
slavery,  to  get  from  the  glimmering  light  of  surrounding 
civilization  some  ideas  of  morals  beyond  those  of  the 
heathen. 

Improve  a  man's  morals  by  whipping  him  for  reading 
the  Bible  ?  Improve  a  man's  morals  by  sending  police 
men  to  break  up  his  sabbath-schools  ?  Improve  a  man's 
morals  by  chaining  him  to  a  cart  while  his  master  has 
gone  to  the  communion-table  ?  Improve  a  man's  morals 
and  regard  for  the  Bible  by  telling  him  that  the  Bible 
sanctions  his  being  whipped  and  driven  all  his  life  in 
the  cotton-field  without  pay  ?  Gentlemen,  this  mode 
of  improving  morals  certainly  obtains  nowhere  but  in 
the  South ;  and  I  take  it  that  Southern  morals  may 
yet  be  improved  a  long  way  before  the  Millenium  will 
dawn. 

We  have  it  affirmed  that  it  is  only  by  slavery  that 
the  character  of  the  slave  can  be  elevated.  Yet  we  are 


BY    ABRAM    PRTNE.  139 

told  that,  after  two  hundred  years  of  slavery,  he  is  so 
immoral  and  thriftless  that  he  cannot  take  care  of 
himself.  I  ask  that  we  may  determine  this  question 
by  determining  what  would  be  the  result  of  two  hun 
dred  years  of  freedom.  If,  at  the  close  of  that  period, 
we  shall  have  failed  to  elevate  his  character,  then  we 
will  be  converted  to  the  doctrine  that  slavery  is  the 
condition  most  conducive  to  his  moral  improvement ; 
and  the  missionary  work  of  my  friend  may  then  go  on 
at  the  North. 

We  have  been  told  that  three-fourths  of  the  slaves 
in  Tennessee  would  refuse  their  liberty  if  offered  to 
them.  Oh  !  I  would  like  to  see  the  experiment  tried  ! 
"When  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  shall  have  offered 
to  them  their  liberty,  and  they  shall  have  refused,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  can  this  statement  be  received.  If 
the  slave  owners  of  the  South  are  as  sure  that  their 
slaves  would  refuse  the  boon  of  liberty,  why  do  they 
meet  with  such  terrible  malignity  all  Abolitionists  who 
may  tell  their  slaves  that  there  is  a  chance  for  freedom  ? 

Let  me  now,  in  closing  these  remarks,  announce  that 
I  shall  to-morrow  night  consider  the  question  of  slavery 
in  its  relation  to  commerce,  to  art,  to  the  advance  of 
intelligence,  to  the  development  of  national  greatness ; 
and  I  hope  to  show  that  slavery  is  the  great  incubus 
resting  upon  the  material  growth  and  progress  of  our 
country.  I  hope  to  prove  that  not  only  the  welfare 
of  the  slave,  but  the  interests  of  the  white  man,  the 
prosperity  of  the  whole  nation,  as  well  as  the  command 
of  God,  the  dictates  of  humanity  and  the  claims  of 
justice,  demand  that  American  slavery  shall  be  abol 
ished. 


STATEMENT 

Read  to  the  audience,  Thursday,  Sept.  9th,  1858. 


REV.  MR.  PRYNE  and  myself  stipulated  by  letter, 
that  in  this  discussion  I  was  to  lead — that  I  was  at  no 
time  to  exceed  one  hour  and  thirty  minutes  in  the  de 
livery  of  a  speech.  We  further  stipulated  that  our 
friends  present,  meaning  those  adhering  to  our  views, 
should  not  interrupt  either  him  or  myself.  I  have  not 
yet  occupied  one  hour  and  thirty  minutes  in  either  ad 
dress  delivered,  nor  will  I  do  so  this  evening ;  but  last 
evening  I  was  interrupted  with  repeated  cries  of  "  time 
expired, "  and  not  even  allowed  time  to  conclude  my 
entire  address.  This  annoyance  came  from  ruffians 
and  insolent  free  negroes. 

I  ask  no  favors  —  no  quarters  —  no  sympathy  from 
Abolitionists — and  I  expect  none ;  but  I  demand  justice, 
and  a  compliance  with  our  written  contract,  which  has 
been  read  before  this  audience.  The  South  has  been 
well  represented  in  this  Hall,  the  two  evenings  past, 
and  she  is  well  represented  here  this  evening,  although 
three  or  four  to  one,  of  the  entire  audience  are  against 

us  in  their  feelings  and  sentiments ;  but  the  friends  of 
(HO) 


STATEMENT    BY    W.     G.    BROWNLOW.         141 


the  South  have  not  interrupted  Mr.  Pryne,  and 
not  do  so,  whether  he  shall  close  within  the  limits  of 
our  agreement,  or  go  beyond  them.  Southern  men, 
unlike  Abolitionists,  are  men  of  good  breeding  ! 

If  persons  —  I  will  not  say  gentlemen,  friendly  to  the 
cause  of  Abolition  —  are  sick  of  this  discussion,  and  of 
the  facts  and  figures  I  am  laying  before  them,  and  wish 
to  break  it  up,  let  them  say  so,  through  their  reverend 
spokesman,  and  we  will  discontinue  it  quietly,  and  dis 
perse  as  becomes  gentlemen.  Otherwise,  we  will  con 
tinue  it,  and  adhere  to  the  written  agreement  between 
the  speakers. 

Respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 
AFFIRMATIVE,  III. — BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

SUCH  points  in  the  last  rejoinder  of  MR.  PRYNE,  as 
I  may  deem  important  to  notice,  I  will  pay  my  re 
spects  to  before  I  take  my  seat. 

The  New  York  Daily  Times,  for  the  8th  of  March, 
gives  to  the  world  some  interesting  statistics,  drawn 
from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Penitentiary  of  Louisi 
ana.  These  statistics,  the  Anti-Slavery  editor  of  that 
widely-circulated  Journal  makes  a  text  for  a  column 
of  bitter  and  sweeping  denunciations,  and  false  and  in 
famous  allegations  against  the  morality,  and  social  con 
dition  of  the  Southern  States  generally.  I  am  a  con 
stant  reader  of  the  newspapers  and  magazines,  both 
North  and  South,  and  of  the  controversies  growing  out 
of  the  Slavery  question ;  and  I  must  be  allowed  to  say, 
that  I  have  rarely  read  any  production  more  un 
sparingly  false  and  abusive,  than  that  article.  It  con 
cedes  that  the  constitutions  and  laws  of  the  Southern 
States,  generally,  "  are  framed  in  a  spirit  of  enlight 
enment  and  humanity,"  such  as  have  the  appearance 
of  coming  from  "  a  sober  and  God-fearing  people,"  but 
then  it  goes  on  to  describe  the  people  that  framed  these 
constitutions,  and  enacted  these  laws;  and  what  is 
more  wicked  and  infamous  than  all,  it  gives  the  sub 
jects  upon  whom  these  laws  are  executed,  convicts  in 
State  Prisons,  as  apt  illustrations  of  Southern  society 

( 142 ) 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  143 

generally !  It  speaks  of  the  better  classes  of  society 
in  the  South,  as  a  set  of  men  under  the  sway  of  brutal 
and  tiger-like  passions,  ferociously  killing,  shooting, 
stabbing,  wounding,  and  mutilating  each  other,  with 
out  any  plausible  pretext,  and  without  feeling  any 
responsibility  to  either  God  or  man  !  The  editor  even 
says  that  these  offences  are  of  daily  occurrence,  and 
that  they  take  place  in  all  the  States,  and  show  the 
leading  traits  of  character  among  Southern  men  !  I 
will  give  the  precise  words  of  the  Times  on  this  point, 
x\in  its  sweeping  charges  against  the  South.  It  says  of 
our  homicides  and  fights,  —  "  daily  homicides,  mutila 
tions  and  fights,  which  take  place  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,"  and  speaks  of  "the  unbridled  and  implacable 
ferocity  displayed  by  every  white  man  who  happens  to 
get  into  a  dispute  with  his  neighbor." 

What  an  indiscriminate  attack  upon  the  Southern 
people !  And  how  common  these  attacks  are  at  the 
North  !  How  gross  and  palpable  their  calumny  !  And 
the  occasion  for  this  tirade,  the  Times  has  drawn  from 
the  criminal  statistics  of  Louisiana,  which  it  says  grows 
out  of  the  "little  regard  in  the  South  for  personal 
liberty ;"  meaning  that  the  Southern  people  hold  Afri 
can  slaves  in  bondage ! 

I  was  in  New  Orleans  more  than  once,  during  the 
past  spring  and  winter, — I  saw  and  conversed  with  dif 
ferent  members  of  the  Louisiana  Legislature,  which  ad 
journed  while  I  was  last  in  that  city.  I  then  and 
there  procured  the  official  records  of  the  Louisiana  peni 
tentiary,  and  they  do  not  justify  the  statements  of 
the  Times.  If  these  records  prove  anything,  they  es 
tablish  the  criminal  degradation  of  Northern  society, 


144  AFFIRMATIVE,   III. 

and  the  superiority  of  Southerners  in  the  scale  of  civi 
lization. 

True,  the  records  show  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  offences  for  which  men  have  been  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  in  Louisiana,  are  the  class  of  crimes  the 
Times  has  specified,  to  wit :  murders,  manslaughter, 
poisonings,  assaults  with  intent  to  kill,  house-burning, 
forgeries  and  thefts;  —  but  these  are  not  "the  special 
crimes  of  the  South,"  nor  are  they  the  "  monster  evils" 
of  Louisiana,  as  falsely  alleged. 

Now,  that  these  crimes  have  been  committed  in 
Louisiana,  I  admit,  and  that  the  persons  thus  offending 
have  been  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  by  Louisiana 
jurors  and  judges,  under  the  wholesome  operation  of 
Louisiana  laws,  is  equally  true.  But  who  committed 
them?  And  where  did  these  offenders  come  from? 
They  were  not  natives,  or  persons  trained  up  in  the 
South.  An  analysis  of  the  penitentary  records  will 
show  that  these  criminals,  paraded  before  the  world, 
by  this  Anti-Slavery  New  York  editor,  as  illustrative 
of  Southern  morals,  are  natives  of  foreign  lands,  and 
of  the  Abolition  States  of  this  Union.  The  proportion 
of  them  from  all  the  Southern  States  is  very  small ;  an 
essential  item,  which  the  editor  seems  altogether  to 
have  overlooked.  The  largest  number  consists  of  fo 
reigners,  of  various  nations ;  the  next  largest  that  of 
natives  of  the  Northern  and  North- Western  States  — 
of  whom,  Brother  Pryne,  your  own  beloved  New 
York  furnishes  the  greatest  number  of  any  one  State, 
North  or  South  ! 

The  number  of  convicts  in  the  penitentiary  of  Lou 
isiana,  is  244,  white  men  and  women.  The  authorities 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  145 

of  the  State  had  the  census  of  the  birth-place  of  every 
convict  taken,  during  the  past  year,  with  the  following 
result,  which  I  beg  leave  to  repeat,  that  the  Abolition 
ists  who  hear  me  may  see  where  the  criminals  are 
reared  up  and  educated : 

"Of  the  109  who  were  American  born,  59  were  natives  of 
Free  States,  and  46  of  Slave  States,  so  that  the  Free  States 
had  a  large  majority  of  the  model  criminals. 

"  Of  the  whole  number  of  convicts,  less  than  one-fifth  were 
natives  of  Southern  States.  Four  out  of  every  five  were 
born,  and  most  of  them  trained  up,  under  other  influences. 

"  Of  the  whole  number  of  244,  only  nine  were  natives  of 
Louisiana,  about  four  per  cent,  of  the  whole  mass  —  while 
New  York  alone  —  we  ask  the  Times  to  note  this  interesting 
piece  of  information  —  New  York  alone  contributed  22,  or 
about  9  per  cent,  of  the  whole  criminal  body  —  the  selected 
examples  of  the  characteristic  crimes  of  the  South. 

"  The  following  is  a  more  detailed  list  of  the  nativities  of 
these  criminals  : 

"Northern  Stales. — New  York,  22;  Pennsylvania,  9;  Ohio, 
9  ;  Illinois,  5 ;  Massachusetts,  3 ;  Connecticut,  3 ;  Indiana, 
3  ;  New  Jersey,  2 ;  New  Hampshire,  1  •  Rhode  Island,  1 ; 
Maine,  1—59. 

11  Southern  States. — Louisiana,  9  ]  Virginia,  6  ]  Missouri, 
6  ;  Maryland.  5  j  North  Carolina,  3  ;  South  Carolina,  3  ;  Geor 
gia,  3  ;  Alabama,  3  j  Mississippi,  3  ;  Kentucky,  2  ;  Arkansas, 
I ;  District  of  Columbia,  2 — 46." 

Now,  the  great  Empire  State,  from  which  my  worthy 
competitor  hails,  and  which  cast  her  Presidential  vote 
for  "Fremont  and  Dayton  " — I  intend  no  disrespect  to 
the  gentleman — New  York  furnishes  tivo  convicts  to 
the  penitentiary  of  the  far  distant  State  of  Louisiana, 
for  every  one  who  is  a  native  of  the  State  ;  while  Penn 
sylvania  and  Ohio,  two  anti-slavery  States,  furnish 
each  a  number  equal  to  the  Louisiana  contribution. 
Pious,  puritanical  Massachusetts,  of  the  extreme  North, 
13 


146  AFFIRMATIVE,     III. 

has  as  many  representatives  in  the  Louisiana  peniten 
tiary,  as  the  adjoining  State  of  Mississippi,  and  three 
for  every  one  furnished  by  the  adjoining  State  of  Ar 
kansas,  where  stabbing  men  with  "Arkansas  tooth 
picks  "  is  so  common  !  Connecticut,  educated,  consci 
entious,  and  pious  Connecticut — famous  for  her  love  of 
freedom,  wooden-clocks,  wooden-hams,  wooden-nutmegs, 
wooden-shad,  and  cuw-heel  flints,  furnishes  as  many  as 
Georgia,  whose  citizens  are  an  unmitigated  tribe  of 
slave-drivers  ! 

Of  the  347  convicts,  of  all  classes,  who  now  crowd 
the  cells  of  the  Louisiana  State  Prison,  145  are  from 
the  parishes  of  Orleans  and  Jefferson,  contiguous 
parishes  on  the  river,  where  the  foreign  and  Free- 
State  immigrants  congregate.  The  river  parishes,  at 
all  times  open  to  the  incursions  of  rogues  from  abroad, 
as  high  up  as  the  Mississippi  and  Arkansas  lines,  con 
tributed  50,  showing  that  the  interior  of  the  State, 
remote' from  the  highways,  furnished  only  62  of  all 
classes.  Of  these  only  nine  are  natives  of  Louisiana ; 
not  even  a  convict  for  each  parish ;  while  there  are 
twelve  interior  parishes  from  which  there  is  not  a  single 
convict,  native  or  imported,  immigrant  or  rover  ! 

Northern  papers  and  politicians,  as  well  as  clergy 
men,  make  the  crimes  that  are  committed  at  the  South 
a  matter  of  fault-finding  with  the  "  the  peculiar  insti 
tution,"  and  charge  these  evils  to  the  demoralizing 
effects  of  negro  slavery.  Northern  men  are  so  accus 
tomed  to  look  abroad  for  news,  and  are  so  familiar 
with  crime  at  their  own  doors,  that  the  statistical 
reports  of  crime  in  the  South  make  up  interesting 
items  of  news,  and  afford  occasions  for  elaborate  criti- 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  147 

cisms  on  Southern  society.  Facts,  however,  are  de 
cidedly  against  their  theories,  and  show  the  comparative 
tone  of  bad  morals  in  the  North  to  be  much  more  and 
worse  than  in  the  South.  Whoever  will  make  a  com 
parison  of  the  statistics  of  crimes,  in  the  non-slave- 
holding  States,  with  States  in  the  South,  will  find  that 
there  is  a  large  balance  for  good  in  favor  of  the  South. 

To  illustrate,  briefly,  this  point,  Louisiana  has  nearly 
double  the  population  of  Connecticut,  yet,  by  the 
census  of  1850,  as  many  as  545  natives  of  the  United 
States  were  convicted  of  crime  in  Connecticut,  against 
197  in  Louisiana ! 

Virginia  has  one-third  more  population  than  Massa 
chusetts,  yet,  by  the  same  census,  there  were  in  the 
penitentiary  of  Massachusetts  270  natives  of  the  United 
States,  and  all  of  New  England  except  a  few  free 
negroes,  against  160  in  Virginia,  half  of  whom  were 
from  Free  States  I 

The  State  of  Massachusetts  last  year  had  24,905 
paupers,  who  were  supported  by  a  direct  tax,  or  relieved 
by  public  charity,  at  the  enormous  expense  of  $  521,254 ! 
The  number  of  indigent  children  in  Massachusetts, 
last  year,  was  1188,  supported  at  the  public  charge. 

But  I  am  not  done  with  the  penitentiary  statistics 
of  the  country.  Anti-Slavery  men  have  made  this 
issue,  and  I  intend  to  make  them  sick  of  the  details. 
And  now  for  the  supply  of  criminals  in  the  peniten 
tiary  of  Virginia.  On  the  12th  of  last  March,  the 
Virginia  State  Prison  contained  more  prisoners  than 
ever  before  inhabited  its  gloomy  cells.  The  cells  were 
closely  filled,  there  being  from  two  to  four  in  each, 
and  still  they  were  coming  ! 


148  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

The   number   of    white   persons,    male   and 

female,  was 240 

Free  Negroes 97 

Slaves  to  be  transported 4 


Total  number  of  convicts 341 

A  gentleman  writing  to  me  in  April,  in  answer  to 
my  inquiries,  and  from  the  city  of  Kichmond,  said : 

"  There  are  only  about  one-third  of  our  convicts  natives 
of  Virginia;  the  rest  are  foreigners  and  natives  of  other 
States.  According  to  population,  New  York  is  equally  repre 
sented  with  Virginia  I" 

The  Report  of  the  President  and  Directors  of  the  Mary 
land  penitentiary,  for  January,  1858,  shows  that  there 
were  415  prisoners  ;  natives  of  the  United  States,  332  ; 
white  natives  of  Maryland,  100.  The  other  white  natives 
hail  from  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
Delaware,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut,  and  the  District 
of  Columbia.  Pennsylvania  has  the  largest  representa 
tion  of  any  Free  State,  namely,  TWENTY-ONE. 

The  Report  of  the  Officers  of  the  Mississippi  peni 
tentiary,  for  1857,  shows  that  105  convicts  were  in  the 
cells.  Of  these,  sixteen  were  natives  of  Mississippi, 
and  seventeen  were  from  the  States  of  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Wisconsin ; 
the  North  being  able  to  out-poll  Mississippi  one  vote  in 
her  own  penitentiary  ! 

The  "Report  of  the  State  Prison  Inspectors"  of 
Alabama,  for  1857,  shows  that  there  were  219  prisoners 
confined,  and  thirty-one  of  these  were  natives  of  Ala 
bama.  The  same  number  hail  from  New  York,  Maine, 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  149 

Illinois,  Pennsylvania,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts, 
Ohio,  New  Jersey,  and  Rhode  Island  ;  New  York  having 
a  delegation  of  thirteen  !  Thus  Alabama  and  the  Free 
States  are  tied  in  her  own  penitentiary  ! 

Reverse  this  picture  —  go  into  your  Northern  peni 
tentiaries,  and  while  you  have  double  the  number  of 
convicts  that  we  have  in  the  Southern  States,  you  will 
rarely  find  a  native  of  any  Southern  State,  unless  it 
be  a  villanous  negro  the  Abolitionists  have  stolen  from 
us,  and  then  sent  to  prison  to  get  rid  of  him  ! 

But,  I  must  be  indulged  while  I  refer  to  the  statistics 
of  crime  in  Ohio,  a  State  occupying  a  high  position  in 
the  scale  of  freedom.  I  have  inspected  the  last  Annual 
Report  of  the  Ohio  penitentiary,  and  a  painfully  inter 
esting  document  it  is ! 

"  The  whole  number  received  during  one  year,  and  that 
year  ending  November  1,  1857,  was  244;  white  males,  205; 
colored  males,  20  ;  white  females,  5  ;  colored  females,  1 ;  white 
male  United  States  prisoners,  13 ;  making  the  uett  receipts 
for  one  year,  of  white  and  colored,  257  !  These  additions 
left  608  convicts  in  the  penitentiary  on  the  first  of  November." 

Where  did  all  these  come  from  ?  where  were  they 
born  ?  I  will  give  you  the  leading  items  of  the  Report : 

"  Africa,  2  ;  England,  8  ;  France,  3  ;  Germany,  19  ;  Ire 
land,  27;  New  York,  37;  Pennsylvania,  23;  Ohio,  74. 
"What  were  their  crimes?  Grand  Larceny,  56;  Burglary, 
44  ;  Burglary  and  Larceny,  17  ;  Horse-stealing,  25 ;  Robbery,. 
10 ;  Manslaughter,  12 ;  Murder,  9 ;  Murder  in  the  first 
degree,  5.  Add  the  5  to  the  9,  and  we  have  Murder,  14 ; 
Rape,  3;  assault  with  intent  to  commit  Rape,  7;  and 
Bigamy  5 !" 

Here  is  another  item ;   look  at  it !     Of  the  whole 
number  of  608  now  confined  in  the  Ohio  penitentiary, 
13* 


150  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

there  are  only  81  owning  property  ;  without  property, 
527 !  These  527  are  "  squatter  sovereigns"  and 
agrarian  levellers,  such  as  you  send  out  from  New 
York  and  other  Free  States,  armed  with  Sharp  s  Rifles 
and  Holy  Bibles,  to  regulate  Kansas  affairs,  and  kill 
off  "border  ruffians." 

But,  I  do  not  propose  to  entertain  this  audience  with 
declamation,  or  round  assertions,  but  with  facts  and 
figures,  which  never  deceive.  According  to  the  autho 
rities  of  your  own  great  city  of  New  York  (turning  to 
Mr.  Pryne\  derived  from  the  official  report  of  the 
police,  there  were  in  that  city,  from  May,  1846,  to 
May  1847,  one  year : 

"Committed  for  drunkenness  alone 7,453 

Drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct 5,584 

Assault  and  battery 1,771 

Fighting  in  the  streets  when  drunk 1,316 

Petit  larcenies,  to  obtain  the  means  of  drinking.  2,209 

Attempts  to  kill  while  drunk v 36 

Stabbing,  in  a  state  of  intoxication 16 

Murder,  committed  while  drunk 8 

Suspicion  of  murder 4 

Threatening  life 53 

Highway  robbery 34 

Vagrancy,  growing  out  of  drunkenness 1,259 

Lodgings  to  the  houseless,  (intemperate) 31,203 

Total 50,846" 

This,  fellow-countrymen,  was  the  state  of  morals  in 
New  York  eleven  years  ago,  and  the  journals  and 
municipal  reports  of  the  city  concede  that  they  have 
annually  grown  worse,  and  that  the  number  of  ruffians 
annually  committed  to  prison,  have  so  increased  as  to 
keep  pace  with  the  increase  of  the  population.  They 


BY    W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  151 

committed  for  the  crimes  I  have  specified,  in  one  year, 
and  that,  too,  eleven  years  ago,  50,846  persons — more 
men  than  we  ever  had  in  Mexico,  to  subdue  that 
Republic ! 

But  I  have  other  items  of  interest  to  lay  before  you. 
For  seven  years,  ending  with  1830,  there  had  been 
5669  desertions  in  the  United  States  army,  while 
7058  had  been  tried  by  court  martial  during  the  same 
period.  So  says  the  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
GEN.  CASS,  then  serving  under  the  Administration  of 
Gen.  Jackson.  The  army  records,  giving  the  nativity 
of  these  deserters,  ancl  offenders  against  martial  law, 
set  down  4000  of  the  deserters  as  natives  of  the  New 
England  States,  and  it  was  in  view  of  their  proneness 
to  desert,  that  GEN.  GAINES,  at  that  time,  recommended 
that  army  recruits  be  taken  from  the  Southern  States  ! 

The  New  York  Herald  gives  a  list  of  the  failures 
of  1857,  in  which  it  appears  that  884  of  these  failures 
are  in  the  Free  States,  against  75  only  in  the  Slave 
States  !  This  was  during  the  panic  of  last  fall,  and 
up  to  the  close  of  the  year  1857. 

The  Herald  of  a  more  recent  date,  sets  forth  the 
list  of  failures  that  have  occurred  in  the  United  States, 
from  the  first  of  January  to  the  first  of  April,  1858, 
giving  the  number  of  failures  for  the  first  quarter  of 
the  present  year.  I  give  the  list  entire,  and  call  the 
attention  of  my  opponent,  and  through  him,  of  the 
civilized  world,  to  the  figures  : 


"New  York  State 183 

New  York  City 74 

Massachusetts  State.  25 

Boston  City 34 


Pennsylvania  State..  104 

Philadelphia  City...  27 

Maryland  State 10 

Baltimore  City 23 


152 


AFFIRMATIVE,    III 


"Alabama 25 

Arkansas  3 

Connecticut 20 

Florida 2 

Georgia 19 

Illinois 195 

Iowa 93 

Indiana 81 

Kentucky 41 


Louisiana. 
Maine 

Michigan .. 
Mississippi 
Missouri  ... 


30 
9 

74 
6 

31 


New  Hampshire ....  13 

New  Jersey.  23 

North  Carolina  ....  33 

Ohio 174 

Rhode  Island 25 

South  Carolina 11 

Tennessee ,  32 

Texas 5 

Vermont 19 

Virginia 41 

Wisconsin 63 

All  the  Territories..  19 

Total  in  U.  S....  1405" 


I  italicise  the  fourteen  Southern  States,  and  leave 
the  twelve  Free  States  in  Roman  characters.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  that  out  of  fourteen  hundred  and  five 
failures,  312  only  are  in  Slave  States,  while  the 
remaining  ten  hundred  and  ninety-three  are  in  twelve 
Free  States,  as  monuments  of  their  superior  morality ! 
These  failures  foot  up  the  round  sum  of  $30,639,000; 
and  to  use  the  Herald's  own  language — "  The  amount 
South,  is  disproportional,  showing  that  it  is  small 
concerns  there  which  are  breaking  down." 

I  may  be  told,  that  the  reason  of  the  many  and 
great  failures  in  the  non-slaveholding  States,  when 
compared  with  the  South,  is,  that  the  "  enterprizing  " 
men  of  the  country  are  North,  the  manufacturing  in 
terests,  and  the  wealth  and  capitalists  are  there  !  I 
deny  this ;  and  I  propose  to  throw  some  additional 
light  upon  this  subject,  by  consulting  the  Federal 
Census  for  1850.  The  census  testifies  that  Massa 
chusetts,  which  is  the  richest  non-slaveholding  State, 
could  divide  with  each  of  her  citizens  $548.  Rhode 


BY    W.     G.    BROWNLOW.  153 

Island,  which  is  the  next  richest  non-slaveholding 
State,  could  divide  with  each  of  her  citizens  $526; 
one  other  non-slaveholding  State,  Connecticut,  could 
divide  with  her  citizens  $321.  After  this,  the  Free 
States  fall  down  to  $231;  then  to  $228;  and  down 
to  $160,  and  to  $134. 

On  the  other  hand,  including  whites  and  colored, 
South  Carolina  could  divide  $1001;  Louisiana  $806; 
Mississippi  $702;  and  Georgia  $638,  with  her  citi 
zens.  Alabama  could  divide  $511;  Maryland  $423; 
Virginia  $403;  Kentucky  $377;  North  Carolina 
$367 ;  and  Tennessee  could  divide  $248,  with  each 
of  her  citizens. 

In  a  division  of  all  the  property  accumulated  by  all 
the  non-slaveholding  States,  it  will  give  to  each  citizen 
$233;  while  all  accumulated  by  the  various  Slave 
States,  will  give  to  each  citizen  $439  —  nearly  double! 
It  is  not  possible,  with  these  facts  before  us,  to  believe 
that  slavery  tends  to  poverty. 

I  call  your  attention  to  the  Compendium  of  the 
United  States  Census,  chapter  v.  table  Ixxi.  There 
you  will  find  that  there  are  more  free  mulattoes,  than 
there  are  free  blacks  in  the  Free  States.  In  Ohio, 
there  are  seven  mulatto  children  for  one  in  Virginia, 
according  to  the  negro  population;  and  in  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  there  are  five  for  one  in  Tennessee  and 
Georgia !  As  the  white  people  of  the  North  do  not 
marry  blacks,  these  mulattoes  must  have  been  born 
out  of  wedlock.  While,  then,  there  are  more  mulat 
toes  in  the  Free  States  than  blacks,  in  the  South,  on 
the  contrary,  there  is  only  one  mulatto  to  twelve 
blacks  !  Look  at  New  York,  also,  with  its  tens  of 


154  AFFIRMATIVE,   III. 

thousands  of  public  prostitutes,  besides  thousands  of 
private  ones,  and  compare  this  with  the  proverbial 
virtue  of  the  white  women  of  the  Southern  States. 
The  white  men  of  the  North  have  had  something  to 
do  with  all  this :  let  them  cleanse  their  skirts,  first,  of 
these  abominable  sins,  before  they  come  to  the  South 
to  lecture  us  upon  the  sin  of  slavery.  Let  them  cast 
out  the  beam  that  is  in  their  own  eye,  and  then  they 
may  see  clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  that  is  in  their 
Southern  brother's  eye. 

Crime,  in  Northern  cities,  absolutely  keeps  pace 
with  pauperism.  In  Boston,  according  to  official 
State  Reports,  a  few  years  past,  and  since  the  taking 
of  the  Federal  Census,  one  person  out  of  every  four 
teen  maleSj  and  one  out  of  every  twenty-eight  females, 
-was  arraigned  for  criminal  offences.  According  to  the 
Census  of  1850,  there  were,  in  the  State  of  Massachu 
setts,  in  a  population  of  994,514,  the  astonishing 
number  of  7250  convicts  for  crime;  while  others 
escaped  upon  technicalities  of  the  law,  and  for  the 
want  of  sufficient  proof,  who  deserved  conviction !  In 
Virginia,  the  same  year,  in  a  population  of  1,421,661, 
there  were  107  convictions  for  crime. 

The  Federal  Census  shows  that,  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  from  which  the  gentleman  hails  who  follows  me 
in  this  discussion,  the  proportion  of  crime  is  the  same 
as  in  Massachusetts ! 

In  the  city  of  New  York,  in  1849,  there  were  sen 
tenced  to  the  State  Prison  119  men  and  17  women ; 
to  the  Penitentiary,  700  men  and  170  women ;  to  the 
City  Prison,  162  men  and  67  women  —  making  a  total 
of  1235  criminals.  Here  is  an  amount  of  crime,  in  a 


BY  W.    G.   BROWNLOW.  155 

single  Northern  city,  that  equals  all  in  the  fifteen 
Slave  States  together,  for  any  one  year !  In  the 
State  of  New  York,  according  to  the  Census  of  1850, 
there  were,  in  a  population  of  3,097,304,  as  many  as 
10,279  convictions  for  crime;  while,  in  South  Caro 
lina,  in  a  population  of  668,507,  there  were  only  46 
convictions  for  crime,  and  one-fourth  of  these  were 
Northern  men ! 

The  gentleman  boasted,  last  evening,  that,  on  his 
return  home,  he  would  take  the  stump  for  Crerritt 
Smith.  I  suggest  to  him  that  he  had  better  take  the 
pulpit,  and  try  to  improve  the  morals  of  his  native 
State ! 

In  New  England,  one  free  negro  is  blind  for  every 
807 ;  while,  in  the  Southern  States,  there  is  only  one 
blind  slave  for  every  2645.  In  New  England,  there  is 
one  free  negro  insane  for  every  980;  while,  in  the 
South,  there  is  but  one  insane  slave  for  every  3080 ! 
Can  any  man  bring  himself  to  believe,  with  these  facts 
before  him,  that  freedom  in  New  England  has  proved  a 
blessing  to  this  race  of  people,  or  that  slavery  is  to 
them  a  curse  in  the  Southern  States?  The  morals 
and  character  of  the  negroes  themselves,  are  of  a  far 
higher  grade  in  the  Slave  States  than  in  the  Free 
States,  although  surrounded,  in  the  latter,  by  the  re 
fining  and  elevating  influences  of  Black  Republican 
society ! 

It  is  common  at  the  North  to  hear  men  boast  of  the 
superior  educational  advantages  of  the  Free  over  the 
Slave  States,  and  of  their  excelling  us  in  common  school 
education,  as  well  as  in  the  facilities  for  the  higher 
grades  of  learning.  I  here  give  from  the  Richmond 


156  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

Enquirer,  a  statement  in  regard  to  College  education 
in  New  York  and  Virginia.  The  white  population  of 
New  York  is  to  that  of  Virginia  three  to  one,  yet 
Virginia  excels  her  in  college  education.  Here  is  a 
statement  of  the  number  of  colleges,  professors,  stu 
dents,  &c,  in  New  York  and  Virginia : 

New  York.    Virginia. 

"  Number  of  colleges 8  10 

Professors 82  72 

Students 883  1,309 

Volumes  in  library  5,500  65,000 

Alumni  6,371  6,484 

Connected  with  this  subject  of  education  let  me  here 
introduce  a  paragraph  from  the  Philadelphia  Worth 
American,  a  journal  decided  in  its  opposition  to  Slavery 
and  the  South : 


"  The  South,  as  a  general  rule,  is  better  represented  in 
Congress  than  Free  States.  The  best  men  in  the  South  are 
willing  to  go  to  Washington  and  to  look  after  the  interests  of 
their  section,  and  their  constituents  keep  them  there  as  long 
as  they  are  desirous  to  serve.  But  it  really  seems  as  if,  in 
many  cases,  the  North  picked  out  third  rate  men  intentionally 
to  represent  them.  It  is  quite  notorious  that  very  many  who 
go  to  one  or  the  other  branch  of  Congress  from  the  Free  States 
are  men  without  education,  with  only  a  superficial  smattering 
of  knowledge  on  a  few  common  topics,  picked  up  in  a  way 
themselves  cannot  explain,  and  who  have  never,  until  they 
found  themselves  in  high  place,  associated  with  persons  of 
good  breeding.  Their  only  arts  are  those  of  the  demagogue 
or  the  trickster.  They  are  utterly  incapable  of  rising  to  any 
commanding  views  of  national  policy,  or  comprehending  in 
its  full  significance  our  Constitution,  and  the  principles  of  our 
government.  The  intrigues  and  management  of  the  petty 
politician  are  alone  within  their  scope. " 


BY    W.    G.    BE  OWN  LOW.  157 

The  Legislature  of  Wisconsin,  composed  of  Anti- 
Slavery  men,  not  long  since  closed  a  protracted  and 
angry  session,  and  has  given  to  the  world  the  report 
of  an  "Investigating  Committee,"  setting  forth  a  degree 
of  bribery  and  corruption  in  legislation  never  before 
heard  of  in  a  Christian  country,  and  such  as  would  put 
rotten  Denmark,  or  unprincipled  Russia  to  the  blush  ! 
The  "La  Crosse  Railroad  Company,"  a  moonshine 
enterprise*  bribed  the  Legislature.  I  give  the  language 
and  figures  of  the  Report : 

"  Of  the  bribed  Senators,  nine  were  Democrats,  who  re 
ceived  $135,000 ;  and  three  were  Republicans,  who  received 
$30,000.  The  only  Senators  who  voted  against  the  bill,  were 
six  Republicans.  They  refused  all  offers  of  bribes. 

"  In  the  Assembly,  fifty-seven  members  received  bribes  as 
follows : 

38  Democratic  members  received $260,000 

19  Republican  members 95,000 

"Seven  members  of  the  Assembly  refused  bribes;  six  of 
whom  were  Republicans,  and  one  a  Democrat.  Of  other 
State  officers  who  received  bribes,  were  — 

A  Republican  Governor $50,000 

Democratic  Bank  Comptroller 10,000 

Democratic  Lieutenant-Governor  10,000 

Democratic  Clerk  of  Assembly 5,000 

Dem.  Assistant  Clerk  of  Assembly 10,OQO 

"  To  recapitulate,  the  account  stands  thus  : 
"  Number  of  Democratic  members  and  State  officers  who 
were  bribed  is  51. 

Amount  received  by  them -$430,000 

"  Number  of  Republican  members  and  State  officers  bribed 
is  23. 

Amount  received  by  them $175,000 

"  The  above  exhibit  is  confined  to  the  members  and  State 
officers.     When  we  go  beyond  that,  we  find  that  the  Demo 
cracy  have  fairly  wallowed  in  corruption.     To  a  moonshine 
14 


158  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

railroad,  of  which  Democratic  Ex-Gov.  Barstow  was  president, 
$1,000,000  of  La  Crosse  county  bonds  was  given,  as  its  share 
of  the  plunder,  which  was  divided  out  by  Barstow  and  hia 
followers,  he  receiving  $80,000,  his  private  Secretary  $52,000, 
the  editor  of  the  Madison  Argus  during  Barstow's  adminis 
tration  $52,000,  and  so  on.  To  other  outside  papers  there 
was  paid,  for  their  influence,  $246,000 ;  about  $40,000  went 
to  Republican^,  and  the  rest  to  Democrats." 

Now  the  point  I  propose  to  make  is,  that  of  the 
nativity  of  these  thieves.  They  are  Northern  men  — 
cradled  in  opposition  to  the  institution  of  negro  slavery. 
The  reason  why  the  Democrats  outstole  the  Republicans 
is,  that  they  were  the  most  numerous  in  that  Legisla 
ture  ;  but  all  were  for  making  Kansas  a  Free  State,  as 
their  resolutions  show.  What  a  commentary  upon  the 
morality  and  integrity  of  Anti-Slavery  men,  hailing 
from  the  New  England  States  ! 

Look  at  the  journals  of  Congress,  in  all  time  past, 
and  when  investigating  committees  have  been  raised  to 
ferret  out  bribery  and  corruptions,  the  guilty  parties 
have  turned  out  to  be  from  Free  States.  For  instance, 
look  at  your  Mattisons,  of  New  York !  Are  $87,000 
given  by  Lawrence,  Stone,  &  Co.,  to  bribe  Congressmen 
and  Editors  to  enact  a  Tariff  law  to  suit  the  North, 
Northern  Congressmen,  and  Northern  editors  get  the 
corruption  fund  and  divide  it  out  among  them !  Offer 
a  Southern  Representative  or  Senator  a  bribe  for  his 
vote  to  aid  in  swindling  the  Government,  and  he  spits 
in  your  face,  at  the  same  time  that  he  slaps  your  jaws  ! 
But  make  the  offer  to  a  Northern  Representative  or 
Senator,  and  he  looks  to  the  ground  —  then  raises  his 
hang-dog  countenance,  and  articulates,  "  I  guess  I  will 


BY   W.   G.   BROWNLOW.  159 

take  it — you  can  rely  upon  me  !"  This  is  the  difference 
between  Southern  gentlemen  and  Northern  Abolitionists! 
The  New  York  Senate  appointed  a  "  Select  Com 
mittee"  to  visit  in  person  the  "Charitable  Institutions 
of  the  State,  and  the  City  and  County  Poor  and  Work- 
Houses,  and  Jails,"  and  report  thereon.  I  find  this 
Report  on  page  23,  of  the  New  York  "Journal  of 
Medical. Reform,"  for  May,  1857,  Vol.  V.,  No.  1;  and 
from  this  document  I  take  a  single  extract : 

"Who  could  have  imagined  that  our  poor-houses,  erected 
at  the  expense  of  our  humane  and  virtuous  people,  and  sup 
ported  by  their  money,  were  thus  turned  into  houses  of  pros 
titution,  where  adultery  and  licentiousness  in  their  most 
revolting  forms  abound,  and  go  unchecked  and  unpunished. 
Who  knew  that  these  poor-houses  in  our  very  midst  were  but 
so  many  vile  nests  of  moral  and  physical  pollution  ? 

"The  record  does  not  stop  here,  for  we  are  told  that  l  the 
treatment  of  lunatics  and  idiots  in  these  houses  is  frequently 
abusive.  The  sheds  and  cells  where  they  are  confined  are 
wretched  abodes,  often  wholly  unprovided  with  bedding.  In 
most  cases  female  lunatics  had  none  but  male  attendants. 
Instances  were  testified  to  of  the  whipping  of  male  and 
female  idiots  and  lunatics,  and  of  confining  the  latter  in  loath 
some  cells  and  bindiny  them  with  chains'  *  ^  l  In  some 
poor  houses  the  committee  found  lunatics,  both  male  and 
female,  in  cells,  in  a  state  of  nudity.  Tiie  cells  were  intole 
rably  offensive,  littered  with  the  long-accumulated  filth  of  the 
occupants,  and  with  straw  reduced  to  chaff  by  long  use  as 
bedding,  portions  of  which,  mingled  with  the  filth  adhered 
to  the  persons  of  the  inmates  and  formed  the  only  covering 
they  had/  Talk  of  the  horrors  of  the  cells  and  dungeons 
of  the  Inquisition  !  Utter  pious  ejaculations  over  the  repul 
sive  aspects  of  Southern  slavery  !  Send  millions  of  money 
to  'improve  the  moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  Flat- 
head  Indians  and  the  world  of  heathenism  !'  What  a  picture 
is  this  for  the  contemplation  of  a  Christian  community  !  It 
is  not  a  picture  of  the  fancy;  it  is  a  stern  and  shocking 
reality.  The  condition  of  the  slave  is  paradise  to  the  atroci- 


160  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

ties  and  suffering  and  tortures  such  as  are  here  depicted.  Let 
us  turn  our  eyes  and  hearts  homeward,  for  here  is  a  field 
broad  enough  for  the  exercise  of  our  superabundant  sympa 
thies.  Let  slavery,  which  we  have  not  the  right  or  the  power 
to  mitigate  or  remove,  occupy  less  of  our  thoughts  and  time 
and  attention,  and  let  us  turn  to  the  relief  and  removal  of  a 
system  of  cruelty  and  injustice  which  exists  at  our  very 
thresholds." 

I  will  now  present  you  a  few  cases  of  Northern 
fanaticism,  illustrative  of  the  Infidel  spirit,  and  Infidel 
tendency  of  the  Northern  mind.  A  Woman's  Rights 
Convention  was  held  at  Rutland,  in  Vermont,  in  June 
last,  composed  of  an  equal  number  of  fools  and  fanatics, 
of  both  sexes — representing  Free  Lovers,  Free  Soilers, 
Abolitionists,  Spiritualists,  Trance  Mediums,  Bible  Re- 
pudiators,  and  representatives  of  every  other  crazy  ism 
known  to  the  annals  of  bedlam.  The  proceedings  of 
this  Convention  were  considered  of  sufficient  importance 
io  be  reported  in  full  by  the  New  York  city  papers. 

After  resolving  in  reference  to  the  Rights  of  Woman 
• — that  she  has  a  right  to  be  virtuous  or  otherwise,  as 
may  suit  her  inclinations,  the  Convention  adopted  by 
acclamation  the  following  articles  of  faith : 

1.  "Resolved,  That  the  authority  of  each  individual  soul 
is  absolute  and  final,  in  deciding  all  questions  as  to  what  is 
true  or  false  in  principle,  and  right  or  wrong  in  practice. 
Therefore,  the  individual,  the    Church,  or  the    State,  that 
attempts  to  control  the  opinions  or  the  practice  of  any  man 
or  woman,  by  authority  of  power  outside  of  his  or  her  own 
soul,  is  guilty  of  a  flagrant  wrong. 

2.  "Resolved,  That  slavery  is  a  wrong  which  no  power  in 
the  Universe  can  make  right ;   therefore,  any  law,  constitu 
tion,  court,  or  government;  any  church,  priesthood,  creed  or 
Bible;  any  Christ  or  any  God1  that  by  silence  cr  otherwise 


BY   W  .    G  .    B  R  O  W  N  L  0  W  .  161 

authorizes  man  to  enslave  man,  merits  the  scorn  and  con 
tempt  of  mankind. 

8.  "Resolved,  That  the  earth,  like  air  and  light,  belongs  in 
common  to  the  children  of  men,  and  on  it  each  human  being 
is  alike  dependent.  Each  child,  by  virtue  of  its  existence, 
has  an  equal  and  inalienable  right  to  as  much  of  the  earth's 
surface  as  is  convenient  by  proper  culture  to  support  and 
perfect  its  development,  and  none  has  a  right  to  any  more. 

4.  "Resolved,  That  all  efforts  of  Churches  and  priests  to 
enforce  an  observance  of  a  Christian  Sabbath  as  of  Divine 
appointment,  is  a  flagrant  violation  of  individual  right,  and 
must  be  prosecuted  in  a  dishonest  disregard  of  the  spirit  and 
positive  teachings  of  the  New  Testament. 

5.  "Resolved,  That  nothing  is  true  or  right,  and  nothing 
is  false  or  wrong,  because  it  is  sanctioned  or  condemned  by 
the  Bible ;  therefore  the  Bible  is  powerless  to  prove  any  doc 
trine  to  be  true,  or  any  practice  to  be  right;  and  it  should 
never  be  quoted  for  that  purpose." 

What  a  mixture  of  woman's  rights,  land  reform, 
Abolition  fanaticism,  Sabbath-hating,  and  Bible-opposing 
theology.  And  yet,  the  sentiments  advanced  here  fry 
this  clerical  gentleman  are  in  unison  with  these  in  all 
material  respects. 

In  May  last,  a  Reform  Convention,  and  a  Woman's 
Rights  Society  met,  numerously  attended.  The  in 
famous  objects  of  the  Society  are  thus  alluded  to  by 
the  New  York  Day  Book : 

"  Friday,  May  14, 1858,  was  a  day  that  every  honest  New 
Yorker  —  every  unperverted  man  and  woman  —  ought  to  be 
ashamed  of.  For  be  it  known  that  on  that  day  there  met  a 
Convention  of  men  and  women,  white  and  black,  in  this 
city,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  open  and  undisguised 
prostitution  was  advocated  !  Here,  in  a  country  that  is  send 
ing  thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars  to  convert  the  heathen 
—  to  instruct  them  in  the  principles  of  Christianity  —  there 
are  those  who  openly  promulgate  the  beastly  doctrine  of 
14* 


162  AFFIRMATIVE,   III. 

promiscuous  intercourse  between  the  sexes  !  Can  this  be 
believed  ?  If  not,  let  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Woman's  Rights  Convention  testify." 

I  quote  once  more  from  the  Day  Book,  a  conserva 
tive  and  reputable  Journal : 

"  There  are  no  orgies  recorded  in  the  annals  of  Roman 
degradation  more  disgusting  than  the  recent  meeting  of  this 
so-called  Woman's  Rights  Convention.  Negroes,  mulattoes 
and  mongrels,  of  all  colors  and  shades  of  colors,  mixed  up 
with  men  and  women  calling  themselves  white  —  women 
without  delicacy  or  decency,  lost  to  modesty  or  shame,  and 
men  bold  in  beastliness  made  up  the  staple  of  this  gathering. 
Even  George  W.  Curtis,  a  man  whom  even  his  enemies  would 
charitably  suppose  would  have  not  been  found  in  such  a 
place,  was  there,  and  disgraced  himself  by  calling  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  <a  pimp/  He  advocated  the 
right  of  suffrage  for  women,  and  contributed,  by  his  presence, 
to  lend  whatever  influence  he  has  to  the  pernicious  doctrines 
promulgated." 
• 

Just  in  this  connection,  lest  I  omit  it,  I  beg  leave  to 
introduce  an  extract  from  the  Report  on  Home 
Missions,  recently  presented  at  the  "Massachusetts 
General  Association,"  and  copied  by  the  New  York 
Observer. 

"  From  reliable  statistics  it  appears  that  in  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont  and  Massachusetts,  not  more  than  one 
quarter  of  the  whole  population  are  in  the  habit  of  attending 
church.  There  are  one  million  three  hundred  thousand 
people  in  New  England,  who,  so  far  as  attending  church  is 
concerned,  are,  practically,  like  the  heathen.  There  are 
twenty-six  towns  in  this  State,  (Massachusetts,)  which  have 
no  evangelical  preaching." 

The  gentleman  inquired  last  evening,  why  we  did 
not  teach  our  slaves  to  read  the  Bible  ?  We  do,  more 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  163 

or  less,  in  every  Southern  State.  But  I  ask  him,  why 
they  do  not  send  the  Gospel  to  these  "  one  million 
three  hundred  thousand"  Northern  heathens  ? 

But  a  few  months  ago  the  25th  annual  session  of  the 
"American  Anti-Slavery  Society"  was  held  at  Mozart 
Hall,  in  New  York,  and  the  Herald  has  this  notice 
of  it: 

"  The  twenty-fifth  annual  saturnalia  of  the  conglomerated 
isms  composing  the  Garrisonian  American  Anti-Slavery  So 
ciety,  commenced  yesterday  morning,  at  Mozart  Hall,  Broad 
way,  with  the  usual  incongruous  assemblage.  There  were 
' black  spirits  and  white/  of  every  shade;  strong-minded 
women,  with  diminutive  hoops,  eye-glasses,  green  spectacles, 
and  unfashionable  bonnets;  weak-minded  men,  with  a  super 
abundance  of  hair  and  an  evident  predilection  for  the  Gra- 
haniite  diet,  and  the  usual  scattering  of  old  ladies,  blue  stock 
ings,  silly  girls,  and  noisy  little  boys.  Though  the  meeting 
was  called  for  10  A.  M.,  the  audience  collected  slowly,  and 
at  twenty  minutes  after  ten,  the  hour  for  commencing  the 
performances,  the  room  was  nearly  half  full.  After  the  plat 
form  had  been  partly  filled  with  men,  women,  and  blacks, 
arid  the  old  ladies  had  subsided  into  a  quiet  body  of  friendly 
gossip,  the  President  of  the  Society,  Mr  Wm.  Lloyd  Garri 
son,  opened  the  meeting  by  reading  a  detached  portion  of 
Scripture,  designed  to  show  a  biblical  opposition  to  slavery." 

The  meeting  adopted,  by  acclamation,  an  infamous 
string  of  resolutions,  and  Charles  L.  Remond,  (black) 
Wendell  Philips,  (white)  Miss  Frances  Mien  Watkins, 
(black)  Wm.  Gf-arrison  and  Edmond  Quincy,  (white) 
made  speeches,  sustaining  the  following  resolutions  : 

"Resolved,  That  chattel  slavery  is  delineated  in  its  whips 
and  chains,  its  yokes  and  thumb-screws,  its  paddles  and 
branding-irons,  its  drivers  and  blood-hounds,  its  scourgings 
and  mutilations,  its  bloody  persecutions  and  horrible  cruel 
ties,  its  abrogation  of  the  marriage  institution  and  enforced 
licentiousness,  its  athletic  assumptions  of  power  above  all  that 


164  AFFIRMATIVE,   III. 

is  called  God,  its  devilish  nature  and  accursed  aim,  its  throng 
ing  perjuries  and  shocking  blasphemies;  and  the  steady 
growth  and  constant  expansion  of  a  system  so  frightful,  are 
demonstrative  proof  that  to  this  nation  most  justly  applies 
the  description  of  the  prophet :  (  Their  feet  run  to  evil,  and 
they  make  haste  to  shed  innocent  blood — judgment  is  turned 
away  backward,  and  justice  standeth  afar  off;  for  truth  is 
fallen  in  the  street,  and  equity  cannot  enter;  and  he  that  de- 
parteth  from  evil  maketh  himself  a  prey/ 

u  Resolved,  That  the  day  has  gone  by  (if  it  ever  existed) 
here  at  the  North,  to  fraire  or  to  offer  any  apology  in  behalf 
of  Southern  slaveholders,  but,  having  revealed  themselves  to 
be  the  enemies  of  freedom  universally,  merciless  and  profli 
gate  in  spirit,  desperate  and  heaven  defying  in  purpose,  and 
bent  on  eternising  their  terrible  oppression,  they  are  to  be 
classed  among  the  most  dangerous  and  depraved  of  the  hu 
man  race,  and  treated  accordingly. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  register  our  testimony  against  the 
American  church,  the  popular  religion,  and  the  government 
of  the  United  States  —  because,  by  their  deliberate  consent 
and  active  co-operation,  four  millions  of  our  countrymen  are 
held  in  the  galling  chains  of  bondage,  whose  emancipation  is 
resisted  by  them  with  exceeding  obduracy  of  spirit  and  ma 
lignity  of  purpose. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  '  revival  of  religion/  which  has  swept 
over  the  country  with  contagious  rapidity  during  the  last 
three  months,  is  manifestly  delusive  and  spurious,  exceptional 
cases  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding;  because  it  has  ex 
pressly  excluded  the  millions  in  bondage  from  all  considera 
tion — has  multiplied  its  converts  as  readily  at  the  South  as 
at  the  North." 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER,  the  great  bell-wether  of 
the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  flock,  .  in  his  "  Life 
Thoughts,"  says : 

"  The  Bible  Society  is  sending  its  Bibles  all  over  the  world 
—  to  Greenland  and  the  Morea,  to  Arabia  and  Egypt;  but 
it  dares  not  send  them  to  our  own  people.  The  colporteur 
who  should  leave  a  Bible  in  a  slave  cabin  would  go  to  heaven 
from  the  lowest  limb  of  the  first  tree." 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  165 

In  this,  Mr.  Beecher  is  greatly  mistaken.  There  are 
thousands  of  "  slave's  cabins  "  in  the  South,  where  the 
Bible  may  be  found  —  where  it  is  read  and  loved  by 
slaves.  In  the  city  where  I  reside,  there  are  two  large 
Sabbath  Schools  for  the  slaves,  where  they  are  taught 
to  read,  and  love  the  Bible.  The  one  is  under  the  care 
of  the  Methodist,  the  other  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  Indeed,  Bibles  may  be  left  at  all  the  "  slave's 
cabins  "  of  the  South,  with  perfect  safety  to  the  colpor 
teur.  We  really  desire  our  slaves  to  be  furnished  with 
Bibles,  and  taught  how  to  read  them ;  first,  because  it 
will  promote  their  spiritual  interests  ;  and  next,  because 
in  that  glorious  Book,  they  are  taught  to  be  obedient 
to  their  masters ;  and  further,  that  they  are  slaves  by 
God's  own  appointment !  To  our  slaves,  and  all  others, 
we  say  of  the  Bible : 

"This  sacred  book,  from  Heaven  bestow'd, 

The  apostate  world  to  bless  — 

A  light  to  mark  the  pilgrim's  road 

Through  this  dark  wilderness 

"  This  book  reveals  a  Saviour's  charms, 

And  life  and  light  bestows, 
Secures  my  soul  from  death's  alarms, 
Or  aggravates  my  woes. 

"I  would  not  let  this  volume  lie 

Neglected  and  unknown ; 
For  it  must  raise  me  to  the  sky, 
Or  bear  my  spirit  down." 

A  Southern  correspondent  of  the  Philadelphia 
Christian  Observer,  makes  the  following  sensible  and 
pertinent  remarks  on  the  subject  of  "elevating  the 
colored  race."  And  what  he  says  is  but  a  specimen 


166  AFFIRMATIVE,   III. 

of  what  is  being  done  in  the  South,  in  teaching  the 
slaves  and  gathering  them  into  the  fold  of  Christ.  By 
hundreds  and  thousands,  they  are  flocking  into  the 
Church.  What  are  Abolitionists  doing  for  them? 
What  do  they  propose  to  do? 

But,  to  the  remarks  of  this  correspondent : 

u  Georgia  has  not  the  honor,  as  I  supposed,  of  the  largest 
church  in  the  United  States,  black  or  white ;  for  Virginia 
claims  that  distinction.  The  Baptist  church  (African)  in 
Richmond,  Va.,  numbers  2700  communicants  !!  —  truly  a 
congregation  to  be  proud  of.  The  Baptists  have  52,000 
colored  communicants  in  Eastern  Virginia  alone.  There  is 
is  a  colored  church  in  Petersburg,  Va.,  of  1800,  and  another 
of  1400.  In  Charleston,  S.  C.,  the  Presbyterian  Synod  re 
presents  nearly  5000  colored  members,  Throughout  Loui 
siana,  large  congregations  of  slaves  are  found.  In  New  Orleans, 
one  African  Methodist  has  1350  members,  and  six  colored 
missionaries.  A  devoted  Episcopal  clergyman,  who  labors 
among  the  people  of  eleven  plantations  in  Louisiana,  says : 
'  It  has  never  been  my  privilege  to  declare  the  glorious  truths 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God  to  more  orderly,  quiet, 
serious  congregations;'  that  'their  hearts  are  unfeignedly 
thankful  /  and  that  '  they  show  forth  his  praise  not  only 
with  their  lips,  but  in  their  lives/  The  labors  of  pious 
missionaries  are  gladly  encouraged  among  slaves  by  their 
masters  —  even  by  those  who  are  not  themselves  professors." 

But,  gentlemen,  the  time  I  have  already  occupied 
admonishes  me  that  I  must  give  way  to  the  gentleman 
who  is  to  reply  to  me;  and  this  I  shall  do  after  I 
consume  a  few  brief  moments. 

The  cities  and  towns,  and  many  of  the  interior 
settlements,  in  the  New  England  and  North-western 
States  of  this  Confederacy,  in  my  honest  judgment, 
open  a  wider  and  more  inviting  field,  at  this  time,  for 
honest,  faithful,  evangelical  missionary  labors,  than 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  167 

Hindostan,  Siam,  Ceylon,  China,  or  Western  Africa ; 
for  the  reason,  too,  that  the  natives  of  these  benighted 
lands,  who  have  been  denied  the  light  of  the  blessed 
Gospel,  cannot  be  held  to  as  rigid  an  accountability,  in 
the  next  life,  as  those  who  see  the  light,  like  the  Free- 
Soil  population  of  the  North,  and  still  love  and  do  the 
deeds  of  darkness!  I  seriously  contemplate  getting 
up  a  missionary  organization,  to  be  styled :  "  THE 
MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OF  THE  SOUTH,  FOR  THE  CON 
VERSION  OF  THE  FREEDOM-SHRIEKERS,  SPIRITUALISTS, 
FREE-LOVERS,  FOURIERITES,  AND  INFIDEL  REFORMERS 
OF  THE  NORTH  !"  All  jesting  aside,  duty,  principle, 
and  expediency  imperatively  demand  that  we  should 
send  among  our  deluded  Northern  neighbors  a  corps 
of  competent  missionaries.  I  am  willing  to  lead  the 
way,  and  to  open  the  campaign  on  Boston  Common ; 
and  if  I  shall  succeed  in  converting  my  brother  Pryne 
from  the  "error  of  his  ways,"  I  would  be  pleased  to 
have  him  go  with  me  as  an  exhorter,  and  he  would 
then  be  occupying  the  same  position  he  does  in  this 
debate  !  May  I  hope  for  your  conversion  ?  (turning 
to  the  gentleman.}  He  shakes  his  head  —  he  gives 
me  an  emphatic  No  !  No,  gentlemen,  I  have  no  hope 
of  the  reformation  of  the  clergy  of  New  England. 
The  Evangelist  Luke  tells  us  that  it  was  not  until  a 
multitude  of  the  common  people  believed,  that  the 
priests  became  obedient  to  the  faith! 

Christian  masters  and  slaves  of  the  glorious  South 
cannot  remain  guiltless,  in  a  coming  day,  if  they  fold 
their  arms  and  look  idly  on  at  the  heart-sickening 
spectacle  now  presented  by  —  not  their  brethren — but 
their  fellow-creatures  of  the  North,  and  do  nothing 


168  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

to  turn  them  from  their  abominations !  In  addition 
to  their  wicked  and  rebellious  course  upon  the  slavery 
question,  they  have  forsaken,  to  a  very  great  extent, 
the  true  God  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  gone  after 
Spiritualism,  Abolitionism,  Fanny- Wrightism,  Fourier- 
ism,  Mormonism,  Free-Loveism,  and  the  hundred  and 
one  isms  so  spontaneously  produced  by  the  soil  of  New 
England !  True,  the  path  of  a  Southern  missionary, 
in  the  midst  of  the  isms,  cruelties,  and  crimes  of  the 
North,  enforcing  morality  and  honesty,  would  not  be 
strewed  with  flowers.  But  let  him  fall  back  for  con 
solation  upon  the  sublime  sentiment  of  the  poet : 

"Am  I  a  soldier  of  the  Cross, 
A  follower  of  the  Lamb  — 
And  shall  I  fear  to  own  his  cause, 
Or  blush  to  speak  his  name? 

"Must  I  be  carried  to  the  skies 

On  flowery  beds  of  ease, 
While  others  fought  to  win  the  prize, 
And  sail'd  through  bloody  seas  ? 

"  Sure  I  must  fight,  if  I  would  reign ; 

Increase  my  courage,  Lord ; 
I'll  bear  the  toil,  endure  the  pain, 
Supported  by  thy  word. 

"  Thy  saints  [of  the  South  !]  in  all  this  glorious  war, 

Shall  conquer,  though  they  die ; 
They  see  the  triumph  from  afar, 
By  faith  they  bring  it  nigh!" 

In  conclusion,  I  will  only  offer  a  few  criticisms  upon 
the  speech  of  the  gentleman  last  evening,  and  I  will 
then  yield  him  the  stand.  He  denied  that  the  term 
servant  means  slave,  and  he  sustained  his  position  by  a 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  169 

quotation  from  Albert  Barnes,  an  Abolition  preacher 
of  Philadelphia.  I  asserted,  and  I  now  repeat,  that 
the  word  rendered  servants  in  the  Bible  invariably 
means  SLAVES;  and  I  sustained  my  position  by  the 
Bible  and  the  Greek  Lexicon.  But  the  gentleman 
advised  you,  last  night,  to  trample  under  foot  a  Bible 
that  favors  the  institution  of  slavery ! 

Last  evening,  the  gentleman  stood  here,  and  with  a 
knowledge  that  we  had  bound  ourselves  not  to  inter 
rupt  each  other  when  speaking,  asserted  that  I  had 
said,  the  Bible  and  the  Almighty  advise  the  carrying 
on  of  the  slave-trade ;  and  that,  the  night  before,  I 
had  denounced  the  slave-trade ! 

Now,  whether  the  gentleman  intended  to  make  a 
false  impression  upon  the  minds  of  those  who  heard 
him,  and  who  may  read  the  newspaper  report  of  what 
he  said,  I  will  not  say;  but  this  I  do  say,  he  has  left  a 
false,  impression.  In  my  first  address,  I  denounced 
the  African  slave-trade  as  piracy,  and  the  unprincipled 
traders  of  New  England  for  engaging  in  it.  In  my 
address  last  evening,  I  quoted  a  passage  from  the  law 
of  bondage  written  out  by  Moses,  to  show  that  the 
people  of  those  days  bought  and  sold  slaves,  and  held 
them  as  property.  Out  of  these  two  facts,  the  gentle 
man  has  fabricated  a  charge  he  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of,  and  publicly  take  back ! 

.  The  assertion  that  Christian  masters  at  the  South 
chain  their  negroes  to  carts  while  they  go  to  the  com 
munion  table,  is  as  destitute  of  any  foundation  in 
truth,  as  was  that  unblushing  avowal  of  the  Devil  to 
Christ,  that  he  owned  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world, 
and  could  give  him  a  legal  title  to  them  ! 
15 


170  AFFIRMATIVE,    III. 

The  assertion  by  Mr.  Pryne,  that  Frederick  Douglass 
and  Sam  Ward  are  intellectually  his  superiors,  I  do 
not  doubt,  after  the  exhibition  he  has  made  of  himself 
on  this  stand !  But  I  do  not  think  it  follows,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  that  they  are  giants  in  intellect. 
They  may  be  intellectually  his  superiors,  and  still  be 
moderate  men  !  These  free  negroes  hail  from  Syracuse, 
I  believe,  and  Mr.  Pryne  tells  me  that  is  the  place  of 
his  nativity.  I  -will  not  pause  to  inquire  if  anything 
good  can  come  out  of  Nazareth,  alias  Syracuse,  but  I 
will  ask  the  gentleman  one  or  two  questions,  and  I 
insist  on  a  reply  to  them.  As  he  holds  these  two  free 
negroes  in  such  high  esteem,  both  on  account  of  their 
integrity  and  talents ;  as  they  have  sons,  and  Mr. 
Pryne  says  he  has  a  little  daughter  —  would  he  be 
willing  to  see  her  united  in  matrimony  to  one  of  these 
buck  negroes  ?  Answer  the  question,  and  the  colored 
persons  here  to-night  will  know  how  to  appreciate  your 
friendship  !  Show  your  faith  by  your  works,  and  marry 
your  children  off  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  these 
talented  negroes  ! 

Finally,  I  do  not  expect  the  gentleman  to  meet  the 
issues  I  have  presented  jhis  evening.  To  evade  these, 
he  announced  to  you  last  evening  what  his  subject 
should  be  this  evening.  It  is  much  easier  for  the 
gentleman  to  travel  the  old  and  beaten  path  of  Aboli 
tion  slang-whanging,  than  to  fall  into  the  new  road  I 
have  marked  out  for  him ! 


REPLY 

"To  Mr.  Brownlow's  "Statement." 


WHEN  the  reading  of  Mr.  Brownlow's  statement 
was*  concluded, 

MR.  PRYNE  rose  and  said:  Gentlemen,  I  wish  to 
make  a  brief  statement  in  reply  to  that  which  you 
have  just  heard. 

In  the  correspondence  between  my  opponent  and 
myself,  it  was  agreed  that  our  speeches  in  this  debate 
should  be  of  an  hour  in  length ;  or,  should  they,  under 
the  pressure  of  any  special  occasion,  go  beyond  that 
limit,  their  duration  should  not  exceed  an  hour  and  a 
half.  Every  speech  of  Mr.  Brownlow  thus  far,  has 
extended  beyond  the  time  agreed  on  as  the  ordinary 
limit,  and  has  occupied  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half. 
AVhile  I  admit  that,  as  a  matter  of  courtesy  and  dis 
cretion  on  my  part,  I  am  at  liberty  to  allow  him  to 
consume  more  than  an  hour,  courtesy  and  discretion 
on  his  part  demand  *that  he  should  not,  taking  advan 
tage  of  the  privilege  stipulated  in  the  correspondence, 
overrun  the  limits  of  the  hour  on  every  occasion,  and 

then  claim  it  as  a  right. 

(171) 


172  REPLY   TO   MR.  BROWNLOW's    STATEMENT. 

Gentlemen,  in  this  respect  I  have  exhausted  courtesy, 
I  have  gone  beyond  its  claims,  in  order  to  sustain  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  my  side  of  the  Union.  From 
the  South  I  have  been  accustomed  to  expect  the 
extremest  courtesy ;  yet  now,  what  was  extended  as  a 
privilege,  is  claimed  as  a  right. 

Having  exhausted  the  bounds  of  courtesy,  I  fall 
back  upon  my  rights,  and  ask  him  to  keep  himself 
within  the  hour  at  least  half  the  time.  I  stand  for -the 
hour  as  the  limit  of  the  time. 

He  says  that  I  have  not  been  interrupted.  No ;  and 
for  the  very  good  reason,  that  I  have  not  overstrained 
courtesy  and  good  manners,  and  demanded  that  the 
audience  should  interrupt  me.  Nor  do  I  intend  to  do  so. 

He  says  he  asks  no  favors.  I  have  not  asked  a 
favor ;  nor  shall  I.  I  ask  my  rights,  and  shall  maintain 
them. 

He  remarks  that  many  gentlemen  from  the  South 
are  here,  and  have  been.  I  am  glad  of  it ;  but  if  this 
statement  is  designed  as  a  crack  of  the  whip  to  intimi 
date  me  into  giving  him  more  than  his  rights  in  this 
debate,  it  is  utterly  futile,  for  I  accept  no  such  intimi 
dation.  Whether  gentlemen  are  from  the  South  or 
the  North,  I  care  not.  I  only  ask  my  rights,  accord 
ing  to  the  agreement,  and  shall  maintain  them. 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED ?" 
NEGATIVE,  III.  —  BY  ABRAM  PRYNE. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN, — I  rise  to  fulfil  the  promise 
I  made  last  evening,  that  my  argument  to-night  should 
be  made  up  very  much  of  figures.  I  am  happy  to  be 
able  to  say  that  my  preparation  made,  traverses  the 
ground  that  the  gentleman  has  gone  over,  perfectly ; 
and  I  shall  not  be  in  the  slightest  degree  at  fault,  in 
being  able  to  meet  the  argument  which  he  has  made. 

Before  I  proceed  to  do  so,  however,  allow  me  to  offer 
one  or  two  preliminary  observations  that  seem  to  me  to 
be  at  this  point  fitting.  The  insinuation  was  thrown 
out  to-night  in  the  preliminary  statement  of  my  oppo 
nent,  that  perhaps  I  and  my  friends  wanted  to  recede 
from  this  debate.  I  now  say,  that  so  long  as  Mr. 
Brownlow  wishes  to  repeat  with  me  this  debate  in  the 
principal  cities  of  the  North,  giving  me  half  the  time, 
and  the  selection  of  place,  and  making  of  arrangements 
which  he  has  had  in  this  case, half  of  the  time,  he  will 
find  me  on  hand  to  meet  him,  whether  on  Boston  Com 
mon  or  elsewhere. 

My  opponent  in  his  speech  of  to-night  spoke  of  my 
conversion,  and  wished  to  know  whether  there  was  not 
a  hope  that  he  could  make  me  an  exhorter.  I  have 
been  practising  here  what  I  trust  is  very  fair  exhorta 
tion  for  a  raw  hand,  and  when  he  shall  be  converted 
15*  (173) 


174  NEGATIVE,    III. 

from  the  sins  I  have  recounted  before  him,  and  which 
stare  him  and  his  people  of  the  South  in  the  face,  like 
the  ghosts  of  centuries  of  crime,  then  let  him  come  and 
ask  me  for  a  new  strain  of  exhortation,  and  he  shall 
have  it.  I  mean  to  prove  "my  call,"  by  preaching  to 
the  nearest  and  greatest  sinners  first,  and  when  he  and 
they  show  "works  meet  for  repentance"  I  will  begin 
with  sinners  of  a  milder  type. 

And  now  a  word  with  reference  to  general  state 
ments.  Of  course,  a  man  may  make  an  hour's  argu 
ment  professedly  based  upon  facts,  and  of  every  other 
fact  the  bottom  may  have  fallen  out,  if  it  ever  had  one  ; 
yet,  in  an  impromptu  reply,  one  cannot  be  expected  to 
gather  up  all  these  fallacious  statements  and  answer 
them.  So,  gentlemen,  in  regard  to  many  of  these 
statements  that  have  been  brought  forward  as  facts,  do 
not  take  it  for  granted  that  I  believe  them,  that  they 
are  incontrovertibly  true,  simply  because  I  do  not  put 
my  finger  in  every  case  on  the  flaw.  "Why  gentlemen, 
I  have  to-night  and  heretofore,  laughed  in  my  sleeve 
from  the  perfect  consciousness  that  the  veriest  school 
boys  all  over  the  North  are  able  to  understand  and  to 
tell  the  gentleman,  that  many  of  the  professed  facts 
which  are  paraded  as  a  marked  feature  in  the  argument 
of  my  opponent,  are  entirely  without  foundation.  And- 
gentlemen,  as  this  is  not  a  primary  school,  and  as  I 
will  trust  the  correction  of  these  mistatemerits  with  the 
primary  schools  of  the  entire  North,  do  not  ask  me  to 
consume  my  time  in  refuting  them. 

Something  has  been  said  with  reference  to  my  lan 
guage  being  harsh,  as  though  mine  were  strange  words 
coming  from  the  source  they  do.  But,  gentlemen,  I 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  175 

have  a  harsh  subject  to  deal  with — haggard,  and  fierce, 
and  bloody,  and  grim  —  towering  upward,  in  the  enor- 
.mity  of  its  own  moral  darkness,  above  all  other  wrongs 
that  have  cursed  the  world ;  and  am  I  expected  to  de 
scribe  it  in  dulcet  phrase,  and  with  silken  words  ?  Give 
me  a  pleasant  subject,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  set  it 
forth  in  pleasant  words.  Give  me  a  subject  that  is  all 
full  of  horrors,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  make  those 
horrors  start  forth  in  the  words  that  I  employ. 

In  regard  to  the  remarks  of  my  opponent  to-night,  I 
will  charge  upon  the  first  half  of  his  speech  with  a 
single  broadside,  that  can  be  all  gathered  up  into  a 
single  retort,  based  upon  a  universally-known  fact,  and 
then  I  shall  pass  on  to  the  other  branch  of  my 
argument. 

We  have  had  read  to  us  comparative  statements  of 
the  criminal  statistics  of  the  North  and  the  South.  I 
do  not,  in  many  cases,  accept  these  statistics  as  correct ; 
for  even  without  the  census  report  before  me,  I  was 
able  to  detect  many  erroneous  statements.  Besides, 
they  are  gathered  up  and  thrown  out  in  such  a  general, 
vague  way,  that  one  cannot,  in  every  case,  hunt  down 
the  misstatement.  Like  the  Irishman's  fleas,  you  put 
your  finger  on  them,  and  they  are  not  there.  I  can 
well  afford  to  let  not  a  few  of  his  statistical  assump 
tions  alone,  to  sink  by  their  own  weight ;  and  it  would 
be  folly  for  me,  before  an  intelligent  people,  to  spend 
time  in  hunting  them,  for  the  game  is  not  worth  the 
eifort,  and  will  break  its  own  neck  in  the  chase  if  left 
alone. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  can  reply  to  all  these  criminal 
statistics  in  a  word.  There  are,  in  the  Slave  States 


176  NEGATIVE,    III. 

of  this  Union,  250,000  criminals,  who  have  robbed 
humanity  of  three  million  men,  women  and  children, 
desolating  the  cradles,  disrupting  the  marriage  rela 
tions,  breaking  up  families,  and  selling  many  of  the 
daughters  to  prostitution.  These  criminals  are  yet 
untried,  unconvicted,  unsentenced.  They  are  on  trial 
before  the  moral  sense  of  the  wide  world  to-night ;  and 
when  the  moral  sense  of  the  world  shall  have  carried 
out  in  their  case  the  same  principles  of  law  which  the 
North  applies  to  those  who  violate  justice  and  freedom, 
then  come  to  me  with  your  prison  statistics  of  the 
South,  adding  these  250,000,  and  I  will  figure  with 
you.  We  of  the  North  punish  such  criminals,  while 
you  of  the  South  send  them  to  Congress  to  make  laws. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  shall  ask  you  to  listen  to  an 
argument  of  statistics.  Such  an  argument  might  be, 
in  most  cases,  dry ;  but  this  will,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
bear  so  pat  upon  the  question  that  I  doubt  not  you  will 
listen  with  interest.  For  I  am  not  talking  to  lazy  men 
and  women,  who  are  unwilling  to  think,  but  I  feel  that 
I  address  those  who  are  ready  to  take  all  the  trouble 
necessary  to  a  just  decision  of  the  question  discussed. 
I  shall  argue  to  prove  that  American  slavery  ought  to 
be  abolished  because  it  desolates  the  fair  soil  of  the 
South  with  poverty ;  because  it  diminishes  the  value  of 
the  land ;  because  it  stands  in  the  way  of  all  material 
progress ;  because  it  impoverishes  the  whole  country 
over  which  it  spreads. 

In  proving  these  positions,  I  shall  make  a  contrast 
between  the  North  and  the  South  in  all  the  elements 
of  material  wealth,  taking  my  statistics  in  all  cases 
from  the  Census  Reports,  collected  and  supervised  by 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  177 

a  Carolinian,  who  cannot  be  at  all  suspected  of 
doing  injustice  to  the  South.  In  what  I  state  my 
authority  shall  be  De  Bow. 

The  North  is  usually  called  the  sterile  North.  The 
South  is  denominated  (in  the  language  used  by  Mr. 
Brownlow  in  the  course  of  our  correspondence  —  much 
better  language,  by  the  way,  than  that  employed  in 
some  other  parts  of  that  correspondence)  "  the  sunny 
South."  We  of  the  North  are  considered  as  dwelling 
among  bleak  hills,  where  chilling  winds  sweep  over  our 
mountain-tops.  The  fruits  that  grow  at  all  are  con 
sidered  to  be  of  little  worth,  and  the  grain  that  we  raise 
is  thought  to  be  dug  from  among  the  rocks.  The  South, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  "  the  sunny  South."  Let  us  see 
how  they  compare  in  all  the  elements  of  material  wealth, 
and  then  inquire  what  has  caused  the  difference. 

The  entire  area  of  the  Free  States  of  this  Union  is 
392,062,082  acres;  the  entire  area  of  the  Slave  States, 
544,926,720  acres  ;  the  difference  in  favor  of  the  Slave 
States  being  152,844,638.  The  settlement  of  these 
various  portions  of  the  country  was  almost  simultaneous. 
In  1850,  the  difference  of  population  in  favor  of  the 
Free  States  was  3,821,946.  The  natural  advantages 
of  the  Slave  States,  if  they  had  been  open  to  settle 
ment  on  the  same  terms  as  were  the  Free  States,  and 
if  their  institutions  had  invited  settlement,  would  have 
caused  their  population  to  far  exceed  that  of  the  North. 
But  no  man  can  enter  the  South  until  he  has  sworn 
allegiance  to  Slavery,  and  done  obeisance  to  its  demands. 
The  men  who  came  from  Germany — driven  out  by  the 
waves  of  European  revolution  —  the  hard-handed  men 
from  all  quarters  of  the  globe,  who  settle  down  in  our 


178  NEGATIVE,    III. 

free  Northern  valleys  and  grow  up  in  a  little  while  into 
thrifty,  hardy,  useful  citizens,  are  all  shut  out  from  the 
South,  because  her  institutions  are  vitally  antagonistic 
to  freedom  and  free  labor ;  and  the  European  peasant 
conies  here  to  work  with  his  own  hands.  He  has  learned 
to  hate  oppression  from  his  sad  experience  at  home, 
and  has  no  desire  to  degrade  himself  by  coming  into 
competition  with  slave  labor.  It  is  this  class  who  build 
our  magnificent  public  works,  opening  for  us  the  chan 
nels  of  a  rich  inland  commerce,  and  making  our  North 
ern  territory  a  rich  network  of  canals  and  railroads, 
bringing  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world  to  each  city 
and  rural  hamlet  in  our  half  of  the  Union. 

Again,  the  soil  of  the  South  would  be  worth  much 
more  per  acre  than  the  soil  of  the  North,  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  the  institutions  of  the  South  have 
cursed  the  soil  and  made  its  settlement  almost  impossi- 
ole.  They  have  overrun  their  ground  with  a  mere  hoe, 
skimming  the  surface  and  extracting  the  life-blood  of 
the  soil  by  a  murderous  system  of  tillage — carrying 
nothing  back  to  supply  the  drainage  produced  by  con 
tinual  crops  upon  the  same  ground ;  while  the  North 
plows  deep,  and  farms  in  a  suitable  and  scientific 
manner ;  yet  the  average  value  of  land  at  the  North  is 
$28.07  per  acre,  while  in  the  South  it  is  only  $5.34, 
making  the  difference  in  favor  of  the  North  $22.63  per 
acre.  Is  it  not  slavery  that  thus  depreciates  the  value 
of  land  in  the  South  ?  While  the  South  has  more  land 
than  the  North  by  over  150,000,000  of  acres,  yet  her 
whole  soil  is  worth  less  in  the  market  than  it  would 
have  been,  if  free,  and  at  Northern  prices  per  acre,  by 
$11,988,387,840.  This  is  what  slavery  has  wrenched 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  179 

from  the  value  of  Southern  soil — being  many  times  the 
estimated  value  of  the  whole  slave  population  of  the 
South.  Every  slave  has  cost  many  times  his  value  in 
the  impoverishment  of  the  soil,  the  retarding  of  the 
settlement  and  growth  of  the  country,  resulting  from 
the  institution  of  slavery  which  has  been  there  per 
petuated. 

Astounding  as  these  figures  are,  they  cannot  be  con 
tradicted.  So  overwhelming  are  they,  that  on  the  first 
examination  I  was  myself  shocked  at  their  apparent 
improbability ;  but  careful  investigation  only  confirms 
them.  I  charge  upon  slavery  that  it  has  eaten  out  of 
the  bosom  of  the  sunny  South  this  mighty  sum  of 
$11,988,387,840. 

What  a  vast  mine  of  wealth  to  sacrifice  on  the  altar 
of  slavery !  What  a  sum  to  sink  into  the  fathomless 
maw  of  such  a  monster  crime !  all  for  the  purpose  of 
allowing  250,000  slaveholders  to  lord  it  over  their 
negroes,  keep  race-horses,  and  vary  the  amusements  of 
gambling,  fighting,  and  drinking,  by  an  occasional  dash 
into  politics,  to  play  the  game  of  Southern  statesman 
ship,  and,  when  weary  of  that,  to  astonish  the  waiters 
and  attachees  of  Northern  hotels  by  blustering  about 
Northern  watering-places. 

I  would  now  contrast  some  statistics  in  relation  to 
New  York  and  North  Carolina.  In  New  York,  there 
was  assessed  for  taxes,  in  1856,  30,080,000  acres, 
which  were  valued  at  the  rate  of  $36.97  per  acre. 
In  North  Carolina,  the  same  year,  32,450,560  acres 
were  valued  at  $3.06  per  acre  —  a  difference  of  over 
thirty  dollars  an  acre.  Between  the  valuation  of  the 
State  of  New  York  and  that  of  North  Carolina,  the 


180  NEGATIVE,     III. 

total  difference  is  $1,023,332,500.  There  was  just 
thirty-six  years'  difference  in  time  of  the  original  set 
tlement  of  these  two  States.  Sunny  Carolina,  having 
altogether  the  advantage  of  my  own  rock-ribbed  native 
State,  ought  to  have  been  far  in  advance  in  the  valua 
tion  of  her  real  estate.  But,  thank  God,  the  hard- 
handed  freemen  of  New  York  have  been  able,  while 
gathering  wealth  from  the  bosom  of  the  soil  by  science, 
and  art,  and  genius,  to  still  pour  it  back  again,  that 
they  may  gather  it,  year  after  year,  while  the  soil  still 
becomes  more  valuable. 

This  is  your  contrast  between  freedom  and  slavery. 
While  one  steadily  impoverishes,  the  other  steadily 
enriches ;  and  the  hard  rocks  and  bleak  hills  of  New 
York  are,  under  freedom,  worth  far  more  than  the 
rich  soil  of  North  Carolina,  under  slavery.  But  we 
are  told  that  the  products  of  the  South  are,  many  of 
them,  very  rich.  "  Only  think,"  say  Southern  planters, 
"of  our  cotton  crop  and  sugar  crop,  and  our  tobacco 
crop."  Let  us  now  examine  the  statistics  as  to  the 
value  of  these  great  crops.  I  intend  to  prove  this 
proposition,  that  the  aggregate  value  of  the  cotton, 
tobacco,  rice,  hay,  hemp,  and  sugar  of  the  South  is 
outweighed  in  market  value  by  the  single  hay  crop  of 
the  Free  States.  The  total  value  of  all  these  crops, 
as  given  by  the  undoubted  authority  on  which  I  rely, 
is  $138,605,725.  The  hay  crop  of  the  North  is 
12,690,982  tons.  That,  reckoned  at  $11.20  per  ton 
(which  is  the  average  valuation  by  the  Bureau  of  Agri 
culture  at  Washington,  and  it  often  brings  $26  per 
ton  in  Baltimore),  makes  the  excess  in  value  of  the 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  181 

hay  crop  of  the  North  over  the  aggregate  value  of  the 
Southern  crops  which  I  have  named,  $3,533,275. 

Gentlemen,  shall  I  not  breathe  into  the  words  of 
scorn  with  which  I  condemn  cotton-worshippers  of  the 
North,  a  deeper  sting,  when  I  exhibit  this  startling 
fact.  This  is  the  great  cotton-god,  so  much  worshipped 
in  the  North  as  well  as  the  South !  This  is  the  cotton- 
god  that  is  supposed  to  be  so  mighty  at  a  distance!  — 
so  rich  when  he  flaunts  himself  at  the  North !  —  so 
wealthy  when  he  puts  on  airs  in  Northern  cities  and 
among  Northern  men !  —  this  cotton-god,  weighed  in 
the  hay-scales  of  the  North,  is  found  to  be  worth  less 
in  the  market,  in  dollars  and  cents,  than  the  hay  with 
which  we  of  the  North  feed  our  horses. 

And  why  is  not  the  value  of  Southern  productions 
greater  ?  Because  her  system  of  tillage  impoverishes 
the  soil;  because  her  laborers  are  not  owners,  gene 
rally,  but  work  under  the  lash ;  because  they  have  no 
hope  of  reaping  themselves  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  and 
can  feel  no  interest  in  its  results.  These  workers  of 
the  South  are  almost  called  heathen  by  my  friend  on 
the  opposite  side ;  and  it  would  take  the  sublimest  type 
of  Christianity  to  make  them  care  anything  for  the 
interests  of  the  man  who  lashes  them  in  the  cotton- 
field,  and  does  not  pay  them  for  their  labor. 

The  entire  wealth  of  the  Slave  States,  as  per  Cen 
sus  report,  is  $2,936,090,737.  The  total  wealth  of 
the  Free  States  $4,002,172,108  — making  the  differ 
ence  in  favor  of  the  Free  States,  $1,166,081,371.  Do 
not  these  figures  warrant  me  in  saying  that  the  sterile 
and  rocky  North  has  a  chance  yet  to  make  its  own 
living,  and  get  along  in  the  world,  and  is  not  entirely 
16 


182  NEGATIVE,    III. 

dependent  upon  the  patronage  of  the  South, -that  grows 
a  little  cotton,  now  and  then,  to  help  us  along ;  while 
our  hay  crop  at  the  North  outweighs  in  value  all  these 
great  stnple  products  of  the  South. 

Even  if  cotton  should  cease  to  rule  the  politics  and 
religion,  and  morality  and  literature  of  the  nation,  may 
we. not  hope  that  the  people  of  the  North  would  be 
able  to  get  along,  and  keep  from  becoming  paupers? 
Let  us  now  contrast  the  amount  of  grain  raised  in  the 
two  sections.  The  North  raises,  on  an  average,  twenty- 
seven  bushels  of  oats  to  the  acre ;  the  South  raises  se 
venteen.  The  North  raises,  on  an  average,  eighteen 
bushels  of  rye  to  the  acre  ;  the  South  raises  eleven.  Of 
corn,  the  North  raises  thirty-one  bushels  per  acre ;  the 
South  twenty  bushels.  Of  potatoes,  the  North  raises 
125  bushels  per  acre,  and  the  South  113  bushels.  Why 
this  falling  off'  on  the  side  of  the  South,  notwithstand 
ing  its  great  natural  advantages  ?  It  is  merely  be 
cause  of  her  slave  system  of  tillage. 

On  all  articles  of  bushel  measure,  the  difference  in 
value  in  favor  of  the  North,  is  $44,782,636.  On  all 
articles  of  pound  measure,  the  difference  in  favor  of  the 
North,  $59,199,103. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  subject  of  commerce.  The 
tonnage  of  the  North  is  4,252,615  tons ;  that  of  the 
South  is  855,517  tons.  The  annual  exports  of  the 
North  amounted  in  value  in  1855  to  $167,520,693; 
the  exports  of  the  South,  in  the  same  period,  to  $107,- 
840,688 — a  difference  of  about  sixty  millions  of  dollars 
between  the  exports  of  the  North  and  South,  and,  be 
sides,  the  exports  of  the  South  are  carried  out  in 
Northern  bottoms.  The  commerce  of  the  South  is 


BY   ABRAM   PRYNE.  183 

mainly  carried  on  by  Northern  vessels  ;  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  South  falls  into 
Northern  hands.  Yet  we  of  the  poor,  sterile  North, 
are  impoverished  by  our  freedom;  and  gentlemen  come 
here  from  the  South  and  teach  us  political  economy, 
and  teach  us  how  we  can  gain  a  decent  living ! 

Let  us  now  see  which  section  pays  the  greatest  pro 
portion  of  the  expenses  of  government.  The  revenue 
to  support  the  General  Government  is  derived  from  the 
duties  on  imports  from  foreign  nations.  The  Revenue 
Tariff  fills  the  United  States  Treasury  from  the  receipts 
at  the  Custom  Houses.  Of  course  these  receipts  will 
show  the  comparative  amounts  paid  from  each  section 
of  the  Union  into  the  Treasury. 

In  1854,  the  custom-house  receipts  of  the  Free 
States  amounted  to  $60,010,489.  The  same  year,  the 
receipts  from  the  Slave  States  amounted  to  $5.136,969. 
The  difference  in  favor  of  the  North  was  $54,873,520  ! 
What  a  fall  was  that !  The  South  boasts  of  an  ex 
tended  line  of  sea-coast,  stretching  from  Delaware  Bay 
clear  around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  far  to  the  north 
along  the  shores  of  the  Southern  Pacific.  But  she  has  no 
trade,  only  a  magnificent  "  site  "  for  one,  which  she 
lacks  the  enterprise  to  build  upon.  But  she  is  going 
to  have  a  foreign  trade  !  Her  statesmen  and  political 
economists  are  going  to  do  great  things.  She  is  going 
to  stop  buying  goods  at  the  North,  going  to  increase 
her  own  tonnage,  and  going  to  do  her  own  importing. 
But  her  greatness  is  all  in  prospect.  It  is  "  distance 
that  lends  enchantment  to  the  view"  of  her  commer 
cial  importance.  Her  commerce,  trade,  wealth,  and 


184  NEGATIVE,    III. 

political  glory,  are  all  a  series  of  "  dissolving  views," 
growing  "beautifully  less  "  as  you  approach  them. 

Now,  when  you  remember  which  end  of  the  Union 
creates  the  preponderance  of  expense  for  the  Federal 
Government — in  whose  behalf  the  wars  are  made — for 
whom  the  fugitive  slaves  are  caught — who  kicks  up  the 
majority  of  political  rows,  about  Missouri  compromises 
and  Kansas  forays — you  will  see  in  the  above  figures, 
a  weighty  reason  why  the  North  should  aim  at  the  abo 
lition  of  slavery. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  two  sections  in  relation  to 
manufactures.  The  Northern  capital  invested  in  ma 
nufacturing  is  $430,240,501 ;  the  Southern  capital  is 
$95,029,709.  What  a  contrast !  The  value  of  the 
products  of  this  capital  of  the  North  is  $842,586,058 ; 
the  value  of  the  products  of  Southern  manufactures  is 
$165,413,027.  What  causes  the  difference?  Why, 
the  South  cannot  be  a  manufacturing  country,  because 
of  the  system  under  which  she  lives.  Her  natural  ad 
vantages,  taken  in  the  aggregate,  are  as  good  as  those 
of  the  North.  But  while  Northern  freemen,  with  their 
strong  arms,  have  chained  the  steam  to  the  car  of  their 
machinery,  and  made  the  lightning  a  motive  power  in 
their  manufacturing  operations,  causing  the  hum  of 
their  spindles  to  break  out  on  the  morning  air,  in  one 
harmonious  song,  almost  from  one  end  of  Massachu 
setts  to  the  other,  and  while  the  spirit  of  freedom  per 
forates  the  mountain  for  a  railroad,  bridges  the  river, 
that  it  may  be  a  path  for  the  carrying  trade  of  nations, 
and  produces  a  network  of  railroads  all  over  the  North, 
enriching  it  in  every  direction — the  system  at  the  South 
has  so  impoverished  that  section  as  to  afford  the  ter- 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  185 

rible  contrast  I  have  presented  to  you.  This  contrast 
cannot  be  described  in  better  language  than  that  em 
ployed  in  an  extract,  which  I  will  read,  from  a  book 
whose  author  is  a  North  Carolinian,  and  therefore,  it 
may  be  supposed,  not  very  likely  to  do  injustice  to  his 
native  State.  I  quote  the  words  of  Hinton  Rowan 
Helper  : 

"  The  North  is  the  Mecca  of  our  merchants,  and  to  it  they 
must  and  do  make  two  pilgrimages  per  annum  —  one  in  the 
spring  and  one  in  the  fall.  All  our  commercial,  mechanical, 
manufacture},  and  literary  supplies  come  from  there.  We 
want  Bibles,  brooms,  buckets,  and  books,  and  we  go  to  the 
North ;  we  want  pens,  ink,  paper,  wafers,  and  envelopes,  and 
we  go  to  the  North ;  we  want  shoes,  hats,  handkerchiefs, 
umbrellas,  and  pocket  knives,  and  we  go  to  the  North ;  we 
want  furniture,  crockery,  glass-ware,  and  pianos,  and  we  go 
to  the  North ;  we  want  toys,  primers,  school-books,  fashion 
able  apparel,  machinery,  medicines,  tomb-stones,  and  a 
thousand  other  things,  and  we  go  to  the  North  for  them  all. 
Instead  of  keeping  our  money  in  circulation  at  home,  by 
patronizing  our  own  mechanics,  manufacturers,  and  laborers, 
we  send  it  all  away  to  the  North,  and  there  it  remains;  it 
never  falls  into  our  hands  again. 

"  In  one  way  or  another  we  are  more  or  less  subservient 
to  the  North  every  day  of  our  lives.  In  infancy  we  are 
swaddled  in  Northern  muslin ;  in  childhood  we  are  humored 
with  Northern  gewgaws ;  in  youth  we  are  instructed  out  of 
Northern  books ;  at  the  age  of  maturity  we  sow  our  '  wild 
oats'  on  Northern  soil ;  in  middle  life  we  exhaust  our  wealth, 
energies,  and  talents,  in  the  dishonorable  vocation  of  entail 
ing  our  dependence  on  our  children  and  on  our  children's 
children,  and,  to  the  neglect  of  our  own  interests  and  the 
interests  of  those  around  us,  in  giving  aid  and  succor  to 
every  department  of  Northern  power;  in  the  decline  of  life 
we  remedy  our  eye-sight  with  Northern  spectacles,  and 
support  our  infirmities  with  Northern  canes ;  in  old  age  we 
are  drugged  with  Northern  physic;  and,  finally,  when  we 
die,  our  inanimate  bodies,  shrouded  in  Northern  cambric, 

16* 


186  NEGATIVE,    III. 

are  stretched  upon  the  bier,  borne  to  the  grave  in  a  Northern 
carriage,  entombed  with  a  Northern  spade,  and  memorized 
with  a  Northern  slab  !"• 

Let  us  now  compare  the  two  sections  with  regard  to 
internal  improvements.  There  are  in  New  York  2700 
miles  of  railroad ;  in  Ohio,  2869 ;  in  Pennsylvania, 
2907.  These  three  States  have  HIT  miles  more  of 
railroad  than  the  whole  fifteen  slave  States.  The 
whole  North  has  17,855  miles  of  railroad ;  the  whole 
South,  6859 —  difference  in  favor  of  the  North,  10,996 
miles.  These  facts  are  some  evidence  of  the  compara 
tive  wrealth  and  prosperity  of  the  two  sections ;  and 
these  Northern  railroads  are  all  above  ground.  The 
underground  railroad  now  traversing  the  North  from 
all  important  points,  from  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  to 
the  Canadas,  is  not  taken  into  the  account  in  this 
estimate.  It  is  quite  probable  that  my  opponent  does 
not  regard  that  great  work  of  improvement  with  favor, 
and  as  I  mean  to  be  fair  in  this  argument,  I  have  left 
that  out  of  my  estimate.  How  is  it  in  regard  to 
canals  ?  New  York  and  Ohio  alone  have  794  more 
miles  of  canal  than  the  whole  fifteen  slave  States.  The 
whole  North  has  3682  miles  of  canal;  the  whole  South, 
1116;  difference  in  favor  of  the  North,  2566.  The 
North  has  expended  for  railroads,  $538,313,647;  the 
South,  $  95,252,581 ;  difference  in  favor  of  the  North, 
$443,061,066. 

Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  indications  of 
material  strength.  The  military  force  of  the  Slave 
States  is  792,876;  that  of  the  Free  States,  1,381,843. 
Now  who  makes  the  wars,  and  employs  the  military 
force  ?  We  have  found  where  the  great  bulk  of  the 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  187 

soldiers  come  from.  Who  causes  the  necessity  for 
their  employment?  The  Florida  War;  a  war  inflict 
ing  the  most  gigantic  wrong  upon  an  heroic  tribe  of 
Indians,  because,  in  their  affiliation  with  fugitive  slaves, 
they  helped  and  protected  them,  cost  us  in  round 
numbers,  $40,000,000.  That  was  a  war  to  catch 
negroes  for  the  South. 

This  military  force  had  to  be  employed  in  the  ever 
glades  of  Florida  to  the  tune  of  this  amount  to  fight  a 
few  hundred  weak  Indians,  who  deserve  the  plaudits 
of  the  world  in  coming  ages  for  the  heroism  and  mag 
nanimity  with  which  they  defended  themselves  and  the 
fugitive  slaves  that  ran  away  from  American  Chris 
tianity  and  American  Republicanism,  and  sought  pro 
tection  in  the  bosom  of  their  better  heathenism. 

And  the  Mexican  War  came  next.  I  only  mention 
this  to  indicate  who  makes  the  wars.  The  North,  as 
you  see,  furnishes  the  soldiers,  and  in  the  end  pays 
the  money.  Wrhile  upon  this  subject,  the  fact  is  worth 
mentioning,  that,  in  the  War  of  1812,  we  suffered  the 
disgrace  of  having  the  National  Capitol  burned,  because 
it  was  on  Southern  territory,  and  the  militia  surround 
ing  it  were  so  busy  watching  their  slaves,  for  fear  they 
would  run  to  the  British  army,  that  they  could  not 
beat  back  the  little  squad  of  men  that  advanced  against 
them. 

Let  me  now  give  you  some  statistics  with  regard  to 
the  Post-Office.  The  total  amount  of  money  collected 
for  postage  in  the  North  in  1855  was  $4,670,725,  cost 
of  transportation  for  the  North  was  $2,608,295,  so 
that  the  surplus  paid  by  the  North  over  the  cost  of 
sending  her  mail  matter  was  $2,012,430.  The  total 


188  NEGATIVE,     III. 

amount  of  postage  collected  in  the  South  was  $1,553,198. 
The  cost  of  transportation  was  $2,385,953.  So 
that  the  South  has  failed  to  pay  her  postage  by 
$1,632,763,  which  the  North  has  to  pay  for  her.  The 
rich  planters  of  the  South,  with  the  system  under  which 
they  live,  have  to  take  from  the  Northern  end  of  the 
Post-Office  bag  the  money  to  pay  their  own  postage. 

The  reason  of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  she  has 
a  population  of  4,000,000  blacks  and  a  white  popula 
tion  of  512,882  that  can  neither  read  or  write,  out  of  an 
aggregate  population  of  9,612,979  ;  making  nearly  half 
of  her  adult  inhabitants  who  could  not  read  a  letter  if 
one  was  sent  them.  Besides  she  is  so  destitute  of  in 
ternal  improvements,  and  her  roads  are  so  bad,  that  it 
costs  far  more  to  transport  her  lean  mail  bags  over  the 
same  distance  than  it  does  the  plethoric  mails  of  the 
North! 

What  are  the  figures  with  regard  to  schools  ?  In 
the  schools  of  the  North  there  are  2,769,901  pupils  ;  in 
the  schools  of  the  South  581,861  pupils  —  a  difference 
of  2,000,000  in  favor  of  the  North.  The  schoolmaster 
is  present  in  the  North,  and  has  been  for  some  time ; 
and  while  he  shall  continue  to  be  with  this  number  of 
pupils  under  his  care,  it  will  take  such  missionizing  as 
the  gentleman  gives  us  here,  a  long  time  to  convert  the 
North  to  Southern  ethics,  political  economy,  religion, 
or  politics. 

Let  us  see  the  figures  in  regard  to  newspapers,  as 
furnishing  a  standard  of  the  intelligence  of  the  two 
sections.  In  the  North  there  is  a  weekly  and  daily 
circulation  of.  334,146,281  copies;  in  the  South, 
$81,038,693. 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  189 

In  general  literary  intelligence  the  contrast  between 
a  free  and  slaveholding  society  is  yet  more  striking. 
The  South  is  so  meagrely  supplied  with  books  that  it 
seems  almost  ungenerous  to  reveal  her  literary  poverty. 
But  my  opponent  has,  by  his  onslaught  upon  the  Free 
States,  invited  this  searching  expose ;  and  his  slave- 
holding  society  shall  have  the  full  benefit  of  the  statis 
tical  argument. 

The  South  has  695  public  libraries  in  here  domain 
of  thought.  The  North  contains  14,911.  These  li 
braries  of  the  South  contain  649, 57T  volumes.  The 
number  of  volumes  in  the  public  libraries  of  the  North 
swells  to  the  respectable  number  of  3,888,234,  a  con 
trast  of  over  3,000,000  volumes  !  An  immense  major 
ity  of  these  books  in  Southern  libraries  were  written 
by  Northern  men,  printed  in  Northern  printing  offices, 
bound  by  Northern  hands,  and  sold  by  the  Northern 
publishers.  The  North  has  opened  the  heart  of  her 
literature  to  the  inspiration  of  the  spirit  of  freedom. 
Her  works  of  fiction,  her  essays  on  government,  her 
religious  publications  (saving  those  of  a  few  fossilized 
denominational  publishing  societies,  who  emasculate 
the  gospel  to  make  it  palatable  to  slaveholders),  all 
breathe  the  spirit  of  liberty.  The  harp  of  the  North, 
touched  by  the  inspired  fingers  of  her  Whittier,  her 
Lowell  and  her  Longfellow,  fills  the  land  with  the 
strains  of  her  songs  of  freedom.  Literature  cannot 
live  in  chains.  The  muses  take  their  flight  from  a  land 
of  whips  and  fetters,  and  the  South  gropes  on  in  the 
gloom  of  literary  night,  for  fear  the  sun  of  intelligence 
will  reveal  her  crimes  against  humanity. 

And,  now,  we  come  to  the  churches.     Surely,  the 


190  NEGATIVE,    III., 

pious  South  must  be  ahead  of  us  in  this  respect,  if  we 
are  to  take  the  Parson's  statistics,  or  rather  if  we  are 
to  take  his  exhortations  and  assertions.  The  total 
value  of  the  church  propertyin  the  North  is  $67,793,- 
477 ;  of  the  South,  $21,674,581.  But,  perhaps,  the 
balance  will  be  made  up  on  the  amount  given  to  the 
Bible  cause.  Surely,  the  South  will  be  ahead  of  us 
there !  The  Bible  is  presented  in  this  debate  as  the 
sheet-anchor  of  slavery.  If  my  opponent  is  to  be 
taken  as  authority,  almost  every  page  of  it  is  filled  with 
sanctions  of  slavery.  It  is  presented  as  the  great 
manual  of  the  peculiar  institution.  Of  course  then  it 
is  in  high  favor  in  the  South.  We  have  a  right  to  ex 
pect  to  find  it  in  each  slave  cabin,  and  to  find  each 
slave  pouring  over  its  pages,  to  reconcile  himself  to  the 
scourging,  branding,  starving,  and  robbing  inflicted  by 
its  authority.  When  his  hog  and  hominy  fail,  he  can 
fill  himself  with  Pro-Slavery  texts.  When  badly 
whipped,  he  can  find  consolation  for  his  smarting  back 
in  its  patriarchal  precedents ;  and  when  his  wife  and 
children  are  stolen  and  sold,  he  can  bind  up  his  broken 
heart  with  its  sacred  leaves,  and  learn  submission  from 
its  divine  sanction  of  the  villany  from  which  he  suffers. 
Of  course,  slaveholders  will  give  largely  to  circulate 
the  Bible.  Let  us  see.  In  1855,  the  North  gave  to 
the  Bible  cause,  $319,677;  the  South,  $68,677— only 
$251,000  difference  between  the  amounts  contributed 
to  the  Bible  cause.  Yet  Mr.  Brownlow  is  going  to  get 
up  a  missionary  effect  in  the  South  to  circulate  Bibles 
at  the  North  ! 

But  perhaps   the  balance  is  made  up   on  the  tract 
cause.     The  North  paid  to  the  Tract  Society  $131,972, 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  191 

the  South  $24,725 ;  and  yet  the  Tract  Society,  I  blush 
to  say,  at  its  last  annual  meeting,  in  the  face  of  this 
beggarly  account  of  Southern  contributions,  toadied  to 

OO  v 

the  South  so  largely  in  -New  York  city  a  few  months 
since,  as  to  excite  the  indignation  of  all  high-minded 
Christian  men.  I  know  that  these  words  which  I  am 
using  will  make  me  unpopular  with  a  large  portion  of 
my  audience,  but  I  came  here  to  tell  God's  truth,  and 
you  shall  have  it. 

For  missionary  purposes  for  the  year  1855,  the 
North  contributed  $502,174,  the  South  $101,934;  a 
difference  of  only  $400,240  in  missionary  contribu 
tions.  But  perhaps  the  South  will  make  up  on  the 
Colonization  cause.  The  scheme  of  taking  the  free 
negroes  at  the  South,  and  sending  them  to  Africa,  must 
certainly  be  her  pet,  for  she  wants  to  get  rid  of  them, 
and  she  has  a  pious  regard  for  the  Christianization  of 
the  negro.  Let  us  see  how  she  supports  this  cause  by 
her  pocket  nerve. 

The  North  contributed  for  Colonization  $51,930 ; 
the  South  $27,618.  The  North  contributes  double 
that  given  by  the  South.  I  do  not  mention  this  as  a 
compliment  to  the  North.  I  only  give  it  as  one  of  a 
series  of  facts  tending  to  show  the  comparative  wealth 
and  readiness  to  give,  as  existing  in  the  two  sections. 
For,  instead  of  contributing  myself,  or  encouraging 
any  other  person  to  contribute  to  the  Colonization 
cause,  I  would  far  rather  contribute  Sharp's  rifles, 
pistols,  and  bayonets — in  order  that  the  negro  might 
be  defended  in  possessing  his  freedom  on  our  own  soil, 
and  living  among  us,  where  he  has  a  right  to  live. 

Now,  what  say  you  with  reference  to  the  compara- 


192  NEGATIVE,    III. 

live  pauperism,  and  the  comparative  criminality,  and 
the  comparative  virtue,  and  the  comparative  benevo 
lence,  and  the  comparative  Christianity,  of  the  two 
sections  of  the  Union,  as  shown  by  these  statistics. 
What  makes  the  difference?  What,  but  the  incubus 
of  American  slavery,  that  has  settled  down  over  the 
fair  clime  of  the  South,  and  has  sent  the  virus  of  its 
poison  into  the  life-blood  of  her  native  elements  of 
strength,  and  improvement,  and  progress  ?  But  these 
figures  do  not  at  all  give  the  whole  view  of  this  ques 
tion,  for  who  can  estimate  what  has  been  lost  to  the 
world  of  mind  by  the  suppression  of  genius,  resulting 
from  the  system  that  prevails  in  the  South  ?r  Who  can 
tell  of  the  glorious  thoughts  that  have  been  crushed, 
of  the  bright  intellects  that  have  been  ruined,  of  the 
great  souls  that  have  withered  away  in  the  prison-house 
of  obscurity,  who  ought  to  have  been  in  the  world  like 
Douglass  and  other  great  minds  among  the  colored 
men,  leading  their  own  countrymen  out  of  darkness,  by 
the  light  that  flashes  from  their  brilliant  intellects,  and 
by  the  zeal  of  their  efforts  for  human  advancement  ? 
Who  can  estimate  the  loss  of  moral  power  from  this 
source  !  Who  can  measure  the  loss  of  power  to  convert 
the  world  to  righteousness,  and  decency  and  morality, 
and  hasten  on  the  dawn  of  a  better  day  for  humanity  ! 
These  things  cannot  be  computed  by  figures.  They 
are  beyond  the  province  of  the  mathematician.  No 
man  can  tell  what  has  been  lost  to  the  world  in  morals 
and  intelligence  by  the  institution  of  American  slavery^ 
-  Slavery  disgraces  us  before  the  civilized  world,  not 
only  by  this  destruction  of  our  elements  of  material 
strength,  but  by  the  ruffian  element  that  it  introduces 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  193 

into  our  politics,  by  the  manner  in  which  it  degrades 
our  statesmanship,  by  the  scenes  that  brute  force,  as 
suming  that  might  makes  right,  enacts  in  our  Senate 
Chambers,  and  by  the  efforts  that  it  makes  to  suppress 
freedom  of  debate,  and  crush  out  the  expression  of  free 
opinion. 

And,  gentlemen,  I  cannot  forget  in  this  connection, 
the  glorious  Charles  Sumner,  who  with  an  intellect 
towering  loftily,  the  depth  of  which  has  not  yet  been 
measured,  and  with  a  moral  character  as  stainless  as 
the  garb  of  an  angel,  was  stricken  down  for  having  he 
roically  performed  a  glorious  duty  to  God  and  human 
ity  —  stricken  down  by  a  ruffian  hand,  and  his  blood 
staining  the  floor  of  the  Senate  chamber.  Gentlemen, 
this  is  the  spirit  that  slavery  breathes  into  the  politics 
of  our  nation ;  this  is  the  maner  in  which  it  conducts 
discussion  —  this  is  the  disgrace  into  which  it  brings 
us  before  the  civilized  world ! 

I  ask  in  view  of  these  things  —  while  Alexander  of 
Russia  is  setting  free  his  serfs  —  while  the  African 
princes  themselves  who  have  held  slaves,  are  giving 
them  their  liberty  —  while  Turkey  herself  is  moving  in 
the  cause  of  freedom,  and  the  Ottoman  Empire  feels 
the  impulses  of  humanity — I  ask  in  the  name  of  heaven, 
if  it  is  not  time  we  should  shake  off  the  disgrace  of 
being  the  last  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  to  recog 
nize  the  rights  of  common  humanity,  and  give  man  his 
freedom  because  he  is  a  man. 

Gentlemen,  in  the  name  of  these  great  principles,  I 

demand  the  abolition  of  American  slavery.     I  cannot 

consent,  nor   can  you  consent,  nor   can  the  civilized 

world  long  consent,  that  Republicanism,  in  its  glorious 

IT 


194  NEGATIVE,    III. 

experiment  here  in  the  New  World,  shall  be  all  the 
time  in  danger  of  becoming  a  failure,  and  of  being 
wrecked  on  this  terrible  rock  of  wrong.  I  cannot,  as 
an  American  citizen,  consent  that  tyrants  who  shake 
their  bloody  sceptres  from  across  the  water,  should 
laugh  at  us  living  under  a  government  more  tyrannical 
upon  3,000,000  of  men  than  the  worst  European  des 
potisms.  I  cannot  consent,  so  far  as  my  poor  powers 
are  concerned,  to  the  perpetuation  of  this  system,  which 
is  our  shame  before  the  civilized  world.  In  the  noon 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  impulses  of  the 
human  soul  are  grasping  after  a  larger  freedom,  when 
the  spirit  of  the  age  is  pushing  out  towards  an  enlarge 
ment  of  the  area  of  mind  —  when  the  very  breezes 
around  us  are  instinct  with  th»3  influences  of  intellectual 
and  moral  progress  —  this  horrid  incubus  of  slavery 
settles  down  upon  the  bosom  of  the  mightiest,  and  what 
might  be,  the  noblest  nation  on  earth,  and  exerts  its 
crushing  power  on  the  elements  of  intellectual  and 
moral  and  spiritual  and  political  strength;  and  it  is 
time  that  it  should  be  abolished  —  that  it  should  die. 

It  is  time  that  we  were  done  with  the  frippery  of 
this  little,  pettifogging  textual  argument.  It  is  time 
that  we  were  done  with  its  taunts  and  jeers,  and  sneers 
and  retorts.  It  is  time  that  we  should  march  up  to 
this  question  in  a  spirit  that  harmonizes  with  the 
gravity  of  its  issues,  and  argue  it,  before  the  civilized 
world,  in  the  light  of  the  great  principles  which  it  in 
volves.  It  is  time  that  we  should  cease  to  be  jesters 
and  jokers.  It  is  time  that  we  should  cease  to  play 
the  harlequin,  and  should  take  the  position  of  men  in 
morals  and  in  politics,  arguing  this  cause  on  the  grand 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  195 

principles  that  give  dignity  to  this  debate  —  principles 
worthy  of  this  audience  we  address,  and  of  the  question 
we  discuss. 

And,  gentlemen,  I  notify  you,  that  hereafter  I  shall 
not  descend  from  these  high,  broad  grounds,  to  meet 
sneers  and  taunts  and  gibes,  and  harlequin  grimaces, 
that  may  come  to  me  in  the  shape  of  any  language  that 
is  read  here.  I  have  a  greater  purpose  and  a  nobler 
cause,  and  while  I  may  for  a  moment  turn  aside  for  a 
good-natured  retort,  I  shall  not  spend  time  in  picking 
up  the  petty  quirks  and  flings  scattered  loosely  through 
this  argumentation. 

I  demand  to  enter  the  merits  of  this  question,  and  I 
ask  of  my  opponent  that  he  shall  give  us  the  gist  of 
this  debate,  and  put  it  in  form  and  shape  to  be  met, 
for  I  am  here  to  meet  it,  to  question  it,  and,  if  possible, 
to  show  the  matchless  wickedness  of  the  slave  system, 
and  defend  the  cause  of  freedom  before  the  civilized 
world.  I  trust  that  in  the  succeeding  evenings  of  this 
debate,  we  shall  be  able  to  lift  its  tone  out  of  these 
comparatively  low  grounds,  where  it  has  rested  hereto 
fore,  and  give  it  the  altitude  which  it  merits,  as  the 
gravest,  and  broadest,  and  profoundest  question  of  the 
age. 

[Mr.  Pryne  desires  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  the 
"Impending  Crisis,"  by  Helper,  for  assistance  in  preparing  the 
above  speech.] 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 

AFFIRMATIVE,  IV.  —  BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

AN  argument,  if  not  the  argument  of  Abolitionism, 
is,  that  men  cannot  hold  property  in  man.  The  claim 
is  a  vile  heresy — its  consummation  a  wicked  and  terrible 
usurpation.  I  might  content  myself  with  saying,  that 
the  institution  of  slavery  is  as  old  as  the  oldest  of 
human  institutions  —  is  recognized  by  the  Scriptures  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments — and  the  right  of  man  to 
hold  property  in  his  fellow  man,  is  taught  from  the 
opening  to  the  close  of  the  Bible. 

I  might  content  myself  with  the  assertion  that,  even 
among  the  Hebrews,  the  legislation  of  Moses  provided 
for  the  event  in  which  a  Jew  is  constrained  to  sell  him 
self  through  poverty,  and  to  acknowledge  the  right  of 
property  in  him  by  his  purchaser.  I  might  content 
myself  with  saying,  as  I  now  do,  that  Christians  of  un 
doubted  piety,  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles 
owned  slaves,  and  their  rights  of  property  in  them  were 
recognized  by  the  Saviour  and  the  Apostles. 

In  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  England,  slavery 
was  established  by  legislation  at  one  time  or  another, 
and  slaves  were  recognized  as  property.  Slavery,  in 
its  widest  and  broadest  acceptation,  was  known  to  exist 
in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  the  queen  was  her 
self  the  owner  of  slaves.  And  slaves  were  protected  as 
property  by  the  Common  Law  of  England  down  to  the 

(190) 


AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. — BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.          197 

time  of  James  II.  Fifty  years  after  LORD  MANSFIELD'S 
speech  in  the  celebrated  "  Sommersett  Case"  of  slavery, 
LORD  STOWELL  decided  the  right  of  a  master  to  his 
slave,  absconding,  and  his  right  in  him  as  property. 
LORD  STOWELL  was  at  the  time  in  correspondence  with 
JUDGE  STORY,  of  Massachusetts,  sent  him  a  copy  of 
his  decision,  and  asked  his  opinion  about  it.  No  man 
of  intelligence  will  doubt  the  anti-slavery  feelings  and 
proclivities  of  JUDGE  STORY.  Here  is  an  extract  from 
his  answer  to  the  British  Lord : 

"I  have  read,  with  great  attention,  your  judgment  in  the 
slave  case.  Upon  the  fullest  consideration  which  I  have 
been  able  to  give  the  subject,  I  entirely  concur  in  your 
views.  If  I  had  been  called  upon  to  pronounce  a  judgment 
in  a  like  case,  I  should  have  certainly  arrived  at  the  same 
result/' 

In  France  they  had  a  similar  system  of  slavery, 
calling  the  slaves  bondsmen  of  the  estate,  because  they 
belonged  to  the  landed  estates,  and  were  usually  sold 
with  them  as  property.  This  species  of  slavery  con 
tinued  in  France  until  1779,  after  our  independence. 

As  it  regards  Spain,  any  one  reading  her  literature 
for  the  eighteenth  century,  will  find  that  her  authors 
never  introduce  a  tale  of  romance,  but  what  some 
Moorish  or  negro  slave  comes  up  as  the  inmate  of  the 
household,  and  property  of  the  hero  ! 

Turning  to  our  own  country,  slaves  are  protected  as 
property  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
What  is  this  protection?  The  question  is  answered 
on  page  671  of  16th  Peters,  in  these  words : 

"  I  cannot  perceive  how  any  one  can  doubt  that  the  remedy 
given  in  the  Constitution,  if,  indeed,  it  give  any  remedy 

17* 


198  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

•without  legislation,  was  designed  to  be  a  peaceful  one ;  a 
remedy  sanctioned  by  judicial  authority;  a  remedy  guarded 
by  the  forms  of  law.  But  the  inquiry  is  reiterated,  is  not 
the  master  entitled  to  his  property  ?  I  answer  that  he  is. 
His  ritjht  is  guarantied  Ly  the  Constitution;  and  the  most 
summary  means  for  its  enforcement  is  found  in  the  Act  of 
Congress.  And  neither  the  State  nor  its  citizens  can  obstruct 
the  prosecution  of  this  right." 

This  was  Judge  M'Lean's  language,  one  of  the 
minority  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  That  entire  court,  though 
differing  in  some  respects,  concurred,  man  for  man, 
that  the  rights  of  the  South  are  guarantied  in  slaves 
as  property,  by  the  Constitution ! 

Slavery,  outside  of  the  Bible,  is  the  creature  of  the 
common  law  of  England,  in  which  country  it  existed, 
and  was  protected  by  the  common  and  the  statute 
law,  as  far  back  as  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  herself  owned  slaves.  Our 
ancestors  brought  the  laws  and  institutions  of  England 
to  this  continent,  as  their  birth-right,  and  hence  sla 
very  was  the  common  law  of  the  thirteen  original  colo 
nies.  At  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution,  it  was 
the  common  law  of  the  western  continent.  But  it  is 
just  to '  the  truth  of  history  to  say,  that  slavery  was 
forced  upon  the  thirteen  original  colonies,  as  the  com 
mon  law,  against  the  urgent  remonstrances  of  the 
Southern  portion,  the  North  acquiescing  most  cheer 
fully!  How,  then,  can  an  Abolitionist  assert  that 
slavery  is  not  recognized  by  our  Constitution,  and  that 
slaves  are  not  property? 

But  I  am  aware  of  the  difficulty  of  driving  histori 
cal  facts  into  the  heads  of  Northern  Abolitionists  and 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  199 

of  New  England  clergymen,  as  to  the  slavery  or  anti- 
slavery  record  of  this  or  any  other  country  —  this  or 
any  other  age.  Upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  this 
country,  they  "stick  it  out  with  stomach  stout,"  unless 
the  facts  can  be  found  in  the  Bible.  The  New  Testa 
ment  begins  Anno  Domini,  and  does  not  come  down 
to  the  formation  of  our  Federal  Constitution,  the  days 
of  Washington,  Franklin,  and  others,  and  to  this,  our 
day  and  generation. 

Abolitionism  asserts  that  the  early  founders  of  this 
Republic  were  opposed  to  slavery.  This  I  deny,  and 
denounce  as  utterly  untrue.  I  quote  from  the  speech 
of  THEODORE  PARKER,  delivered  at  the  "New  England 
Anti-Slavery  Convention,"  in  May,  1858.  That  speech 
appears  in  pamphlet  form,  "copyright  secured."  On 
page  11,  the  author  says : 

"  It  is  now  well  known  that  many  of  the  leading  men  in 
the  conventions,  Federal  as  well  as  State,  were  hostile  to 
slavery.  I  need  only  mention  Franklin,  Washington,  Madi 
son,  Samuel  Adams,  and  John  Hancock/' 

The  very  reverse  of  what  this  champion  of  Aboli 
tionism  says,  "is  now  well  known"  to  be  true.  Let 
us  look  into  the  facts  of  history. 

1.  Washington   and   Franklin    put   the    compact    I 
have  been   dwelling  upon,  the  Fugitive   Slave   Law, 
into  the  Constitution.     Perhaps   I   ought   not  to  dis 
close  this  fact  until  EDWARD  EVERETT  has  done  with 
his  oration  and  his  Mount  Vernon  Fund,  as  it  will  stop 
all  contributions  by  anti-slavery  men  ! 

2.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  &  Co.  divided  the  territory 
of  the  Union,  when  the  great  division  was  made — • 


200  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

all  north  of  the  Ohio  to  be  free;  all  south  of  that 
slave. . 

3.  WASHINGTON  signed  Acts  of  Congress  admitting 
Slave   States  into  the  Union.     JOHN  ADAMS  did  the 
same,  when  they  both  had  the  power  to  veto  them, 
and  knew  that  Congress  could  not  take  them  up  and 
pass  them  by  a  two-thirds  vote  ! 

4.  WASHINGTON,   FRANKLIN,   RUFUS    KING,   and 
others,  prohibited,   in   the   Federal   Constitution,   the 
abolition  of  the  African  slave-trade  before  the  year 
1808  —  the  memorials  requesting  them  to  do  so,  all 
coming  from  the  North! 

5.  And  JOHN  ADAMS  signed  the  Act  of  Congress 
which  repealed  the  Wilmot  Proviso  ordinance  (orga 
nizing  the  North-western  Territory  as  an  anti-slavery 
Territory),  organizing   the  Alabama  and   Mississippi 
Territories  as  Slave  Territories! 

6.  WASHINGTON,  FRANKLIN,  and  ALEXANDER  HA 
MILTON  put  into  the  Constitution  the  provision  provi 
ding  for  the  three-fifth  representation  of  slaves  in  the 
House  of   Representatives,  by  which  the    South  now 
gains  nearly  thirty  Representatives  ! 

7.  THOMAS  JEFFERSON  negotiated  the  purchase  of 
the   Louisiana   Territory,  a   slaveholding   and   slave- 
abounding  territory,  larger  than  the  then  whole  ter 
ritory  of  the  United   States ;   and,  in  the  treaty  with 
France,  guarantied  the  preservation  and  protection  of 
"slave  property." 

Fifty  other  facts  of  a  similar  character,  and  equally 
as  strong  as  these,  could  be  cited,  to  prove  what  an 
untruth  Abolitionism  utters,  when  it  asserts  that  the 
early  founders  of  our  Republic  were  opposed  to  sla- 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  201 

very.  WASHINGTON,  JEFFERSON,  MADISON,  and  MON 
ROE,  were  all  taken  from  one  State,  and  made  Presi 
dents  by  Northern  votes,  because  they  were  slaveholders, 
and  were  supposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  slave-trade, 
by  which  so  many  men  at  the  North  were  making 
fortunes  ! 

Now,  these  Southern  slaveholding  Presidents  were 
Northern  made.  Washington  was  elected  and  re- 
elected  without  opposition.  Jefferson  was  re-elected 
by  an  immense  majority,  and  both  times  beat  Northern 
men  by  getting  Northern  votes.  Madison  and  Mon 
roe  were  elected  more  by  Northern  than  Southern 
votes. 

The  existence  of  slavery  in  ancient  society,  from 
time  immemorial,  is  an  unquestionable  fact,  that,  to 
stand  here  and  argue,  would  be  a  reflection  on  the 
intelligence  of  this  audience.  But  the  ascertainment 
of  the  numbers  of  slaves  owned  and  sold  in  the  differ 
ent  quarters  of  the  earth,  and  in  different  ages,  is  of 
great  importance,  for  it  touches  the  question  of  slavery 
at  all  points.  I  cannot  be  expected  to  enter  into 
details,  however,  and  will  content  myself  with  saying 
that  HUNDREDS  OF  MILLIONS  were  sold  in  the  slave- 
marts  of  Phoenicia,  Assyria,  Egypt,  Judea,  Greece, 
Italy,  Germany,  Britain,  and  Gaul.  Out  of  these 
millions,  none  ever  rose  with  indignity  and  strength  to 
retaliate  on  their  purchasers. 

Ancient  society,  like  Southern  society,  consisted  of 
freemen  and  slaves ;  and  the  number  of  the  latter  is 
connected  with  its  constitution,  its  spirit,  and  its  cha 
racter.  Ancient  writers  tell  us  that  they  were  very 
numerous  in  Athens,  and  the  cities  which,  like  her, 


202  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

prosecuted  the  arts  of  industry  and  trade.  The  cen 
sus  of  Demetrius  returned  for  Athens  20,000  native- 
born  citizens,  10,000  resident  foreigners,  and  400,000 
slaves !  Corinth  had  460,000  slaves !  .ZEgina,  a 
rocky  strip  as  barren  as  the  cold  North,  with  its  one 
hundred  and  fifty  superficial  miles,  had  470,000 
slaves  !  The  slaves  _in  Attica  were  mostly  owned  by 
individuals,  some  owning  three  hundred,  six  hundred, 
and  one  thousand,  whom  they  hired  out  and  worked  on 
their  farms.  The  Athenian  government  owned  200,000 
slaves,  and  employed  them  in  working  the  mines  and 
prosecuting  works  of  internal  improvement. 

This  body  of  condensed  testimonies  and  select  proofs, 
shows  that  slavery  found  its  basis  in  the  organization 
of  primitive  society ;  and  in  my  several  lectures  I  have 
traced  it  up  the  stream  of  time  to  God's  awful  mysteries 
which  enshroud  the  origin  of  society  !  Whether  I  have 
turned  to  a  long  line  of  monuments,  historical,  poetical, 
or  philosophical,  sacred  or  human,  or  to  codes  and 
creeds,  I  have  everywhere  found  the  primitive  existence 
of  slavery — just  such  slavery  as  exists  in  America  — 
none  better  —  most  of  it  worse  ! 

Voices  from  the  east,  and  voices  from  the  west ; 
voices  from  the  precincts  of  Eden,  and  from  the  sum 
mits  of  smoking  Sinai;  voices  from  the  dark  and 
gloomy  depths  of  antiquity,  and  from  the  glare  of 
refined  and  elevated  civilization ;  voices  of  inspired 
men  from  the  sanctuaries  of  God,  and  voices  of  bad 
men  from  the  precincts  of  cruelty  and  degradation  ; 
voices  from  every  tongue,  and  every  nation  that  lived 
upon  the  tide  of  time  past,  proclaim  the  consistent, 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  203 

primative,  heathen,  and  Christian  fact  of  original 
slavery  I 

A  grand  law  of  God  in  nature  adapted  the  several 
physical  characters  and  constitutions,  as  well  as  the 
respective  complexions  of  the  races,  to  the  localities  in 
which  they  were  designed  to  dwell.  To  the  white  race, 
the  descendants  of  Japhet,  the  northern  regions  of  the 
earth  were  given.  To  Shem  and  his  descendants,  the 
copper-colored  race,  the  middle  regions  or  temperate 
clime,  north  of  the  equator,  was  allotted.  But  to  Ham 
and  his  race  was  given  the  burning  South. 

But  who  did  Ham  marry?  This  is  an  important 
question  in  this  age  of  slavery  agitation  and  excitement 
about  the  origin  of  the  races,  and  their  several  colors. 
Ham  evidently  got  his  wife  from  the  race  of  Cain. 
Commentators  generally  agree,  that  in  Genesis  vi.  2, 
"sons  of  God"  mean  those  of  the  race  of  Seth ; 
and  .that  "  the  daughters  of  men"  imply  the  females 
of  the  race  of  Cain.  The  word  "fair"  in  our  version, 
applied  to  these  females,  does  not  warrant  the  conclu 
sion  that  they  were  white  women,  or  that  they  were 
even  of  a  light  complexion.  It  is  translated  from  the 
Hebrew  tovoth,  being  in  the  feminine  plural,  from  tov, 
and  only  expresses  the  idea  of  what  may  seem  good  and 
excellent  to  the  beholder ;  it  expresses  no  quality  of 
complexion  or  beauty,  beyond  what  may  exist  in  the 
mind  of  the  beholder. 

Cain  had  been  driven  out  a  degenerate,  degraded, 
deteriorated  vagabond.  As  soon  as  these  races  inter 
married,  God  became  displeased  with  them — determined 
to  destroy  man  from  the  earth  —  avowing  that  the 
"wickedness  of  man  had  become  great -in  the  earth." 


204  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

We  havo  no  proof  that  the  race  has  ever  improved. 
All  the  wons  of  Ham  were  born  after  the  flood,  and  for 
generations  afterwards  they  kept  up  the  name  Cain, 
Cainite,  Canaan.  These  variations  will  not  be  noticed 
in  a  language  so  remote  as  ours,  but  linguists  "and  com 
mentators  trace  them  all  back  to  their  root,  the  original 
of  Cain.  The  curse  of  slavery  was  imposed  on  the 
descendants  of  Ham,  because  of  this  marriage,  and 
they  were  subjected  to  be  bought  and  sold.  The  very 
name  Cain,  signifies  "  one  purchased." 

The  descendants  of  Ham  were  black,  and  the  black 
man  of  Africa  is  of  that  descent.  "And  the  Lord  set 
a  mark  upon  Cain."  This  "  mark"  was  a  black  skin. 
Since  language  was  first  used  to  designate  the  ideas  of 
men,  black  has  been  applied  to  sin  and  wickedness.  In 
the  book  of  Nahum,  chapter  2d,  it  is  said  in  reference 
to  this  race,  "  The  faces  of  them  all  gather  blackness" 
The  descendants  of  Ham  were  black  when  born.  His 
wife,  of  the  race  of  Cain,  was  a  negro  wench,  inheriting 
Cain's  "mark"  and  that  mark  was  a  black  skin.  The 
wife  of  Ham  was  by  the  name  of  Namah,  and  the  de 
scendants  of  Ham  perpetuated  her  name  in  the  family, 
to  their  latest  generation.  The  name  of  this  negro 
woman  was  handed  down  in  Scripture,  for  obvious 
reasons,  while  the  name  of  the  wife  of  Noah  remains 
a  mystery !  And  it  was  before  the  flood  that  the 
degenerate  sons  of  Seth  fell  in  love  with  the  black 
daughters  of  the  race  of  Cain.  And  the  degenerate 
Sethites  of  New  England,  when  they  meet  with  our 
Southern  Cainites,  illustrate  the  habits  of  their  anti- 
deluvian  predecessors !  Abram  is  a  negro  name,  and 
thereby  hangs  a  tale  ! 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  205 

Abolitionists  take  the  ground  that  the  precepts  of 
the  Bible  are  diametrically  opposed  to  slavery ;  and 
that  the  slave-trade  is  only  evil,  and  evil  continually 
I  have  not  so  learned  the  precepts  of  the  Bible ;  and 
as  for  the  African  slave-trade,  the  revival  of  which  I 
do  not  advocate,  and  have  already  denounced  as  piracy, 
I  am  not  sure  that  it  has  not  always  been  a  blessing, 
instead  of  a  curse  to  the  African  race. 

The  28th  chapter  of  Deuteronomy  sets  forth  the 
blessings  and  curses  promised  the  Jews,  and,  I  may 
add,  all  mankind,  for  obedience  or  disobedience  to  the 
laws  of  God.  At  the  68th  verse  they  were  told  that 
they  should  again  be  sent  to  Egypt  and  exposed  for 
sale  —  that  no  man  should  buy  them,  or  that  there 
should  not  be  buyers  enough,  as  the  passage  may  be 
read,  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  being  slaves — deemed 
a  great  blessing,  as  it  alone  assured  protection  and 
sustenance.  This  was  all  verified  at  the  time  Jerusalem 
was  sacked  by  Titus ;  and  in  Egypt,  as  well  as  many 
other  places,  thousands  of  the  Hebrew  captives  were 
exposed,  as  slaves,  for  sale,  and  thousands  of  them  died 
of  starvation  because  purchasers  could  not  be  found. 
The  Romans,  always  in  the  market  when  slaves  were 
to  be  sold,  would  not  have  these  Hebrew  captives, 
because  they  were  too  stubborn  and  degraded  for  their 
use.  Their  numbers,  compared  with  the  number  of 
purchasers  in  the  market  were  so  great,  that  the  price 
was  only  nominal,  when  a  sale  was  effected ;  and  thou 
sands  starved  to  death,  because  purchasers  could  not 
be  had  at  any  price. 

This  same  incident  happened  to  all  the  Jews,  who 
were  freemen  in  Spain,  during  the  reign  of  Ferdinand 
18 


206  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

and  Isabella,  when  800,000  Jews  were  driven  from 
that  kingdom  in  one  day,  half  of  whom  famished  to 
death,  because  they  could  not  find  masters,  though  anx 
ious  to  do  so,  and  capitalists  were  purchasing  slaves, 
where  they  could  be  suited  in  the  quality.  What  are 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible  in  this  case  ?  It  predicted 
this,  and  its  teachings  on  this  subject  favor  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery. 

It  may  be  urged  by  Abolitionism,  that  this  was  a 
curse  inflicted  upon  the  Jews  for  their  disobedience,  and 
murder  of  Christ.  Such  a  peculiar  relation  of  facts, 
and  state  of  bondage,  have  not  been  confined  to  the 
Jews  alone.  In  1376,  the  Florentines,  then  a  travel 
ling,  trading,  or  commercial  people,  possessed  such 
infirmities  that  Christianity  was  scouted  by  them,  and 
murder  and  robbery  became  mere  pastime.  The  sur 
rounding  governments,  and  the  Church,  whose  patience 
were  almost  exhausted  by  their  pillage,  delivered  them 
over  to  slavery,  which  was  hailed  as  a  great  blessing 
by  such  as  met  with  purchasers;  others  were 
punished  with  death.  In  the  days  of  Walsingham,  in 
England,  a  large  proportion  of  the  traders  were  of  the 
same  people,  while  freemen  were  liable  to  be  put 
to  death  by  any  one,  and  their  effects  legally  seized 
upon  ;  in  bondage  they  were  protected ;  and  they  sought 
slavery  as  a  remedy — only  the  better  classes  finding 
purchasers.  This  was  in  Christian  England,  in  accord 
ance  with  what  was  then  understood  to  be  the  precepts 
0^  tLe  Bible. 

In  1830,  John  and  Richard  Lander  were  sent  out 
to  explore  certain  parts  of  Africa  by  the  "London 
African  Association."  They  reported  that  their  hearts 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  207 

sickened  at  the  contemplation  of  the  scenes  of  horror 
they  met  with,  and  added: — "  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
since  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  Africa,  slaves 
have  become  of  little  value  in  that  country.  That  the 
Africans  in  many  places  have  returned  to  sacrifice  and 
cannibalism,  is  also  true,  and  a  cause  of  deep  sorrow 
to  the  philanthropist;  but  considering  the  state  and 
condition  of  the  savages,  there  is  no  alternative  but  a 
revival  of  the  slave-trade.  The  slave  there,  if  he  can 
not  be  sold,  is  at  all  times  liable  to  be  put  to  death, 
either  for  purposes  of  food,  or  of  thinning  their  ranks." 

Now,  suppose  we  buy,  and  then  turn  them  loose 
there,  they  will  at  once  become  the  subjects  of  slavery, 
because  slavery  affords  them  protection,  as  long  as 
their  savage  owners  are  able  to  afford  them  the  means 
of  living.  Let  us  present  this  state  of  facts  to  our 
Christian  philanthropists  of  the  North,  and  ask  them 
to  apply  their  much  talked  of  golden  rule,  of  doing  to 
others  as  they  would  have  others  do  unto  us ;  and,  in 
case  the  slave-trade  with  Africa  had  not  been  abolished, 
what  would  they  deem  it  their  duty  to  do  for  the  pre 
sent,  practical,  and  lasting  benefit  of  these  poor  victims, 
whom  the  misguided,  false,  and  misdirected  sympathy 
of  the  world  has  thus  consigned  to  sacrifice  and  death  ? 

So  recently  as  1851,  our  sympathies  were  excited  by 
an  account  published  to  the  world,  of  an  African  chief 
tain  and  an  extensive  slave-holder,  who,  during  the 
previous  year,  finding  himself  cut  off  from  a  market 
for  his  surplus  of  slaves  on  the  western  coast,  in  con- 
quence  of  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  with  Europe 
and  America,  put  to  death  3000  whom  he  could  no 
longer  feed,  or  profitably  employ !  The  trade  with 


208  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

Arabia,  Egypt,  and  the  Barbary  States,  was  going  on, 
and  was  lawful ;  but  these  markets  were  not  sufficient 
to  drain  off  the  surplus  numbers  on  the  western  coast, 
and  hence,  such  as  were  not  suited  for  food,  were  in 
discriminately  slaughtered !  While  the  slave-trade 
was  tolerated,  even  cannibalism  was  checked  up,  from 
the  fact  that  one  negro  would  bring  in  exchange  ten 
times  the  amount  of  provisions  to  be  found  in  the  ser 
ving  up  of  his  carcass,  and  a  greater  variety  at  that. 

The  blood  of  these  3000  massacred  negroes  now 
cries  from  the  soil  of  Western  Africa  unto  the  Aboli 
tionists  of  England  and  America,  who  enacted  laws 
prohibiting  the  slave-trade,  in  the  following  eloquent, 
touching,  and  as  I  think,  appropriate  terms  : 

"Gentlemen,  apply,  oh!  apply  to  suffering  and  degraded 
Africa,  the  Bible  doctrine  of  the  golden  rule,  and  relieve  us 
poor  African  slaves  'from  starvation,  massacre,  and  death. 
Come,  oh !  come ;  buy  us  from  our  savage  owners,  who,  as 
cannibals  eat  us  up,  or  thin  our  ranks  by  indiscriminate 
slaughter,  when  we  become  so  numerous  as  to  be  a  burthen 
to  them.  Come,  oh!  come;  buy  us,  that  we  may  be  your 
slaves,  cither  in  the  West  India  Islands,  or  among  the  cotton, 
tobacco,  rice,  and  sugar  plantations  of  America,  and  have 
some  chance  to  learn  that  religion  under  which  you  prosper ! 
We  prefer  the  Southern  overseer's  task,  with  enough  to  eat 
and  to  wear,  to  starvation  and  death  in  our  native  land ! 
Then,  in  the  language  of  your  Bible,  '  we  shall  build  up  the 
old  wastes/  '  raise  up  the  former  desolations/  and  i  repair 
the  waste  cities,  the  desolations  of  many  generations/  i  And 
strangers  shall  stand  and  feed  your  flocks,  and  the  sons  of 
the  alien  shall  be  your  ploughmen,  and  your  wine-dressers/ 
«  Then  ye  shall  be  named  the  Priests  of  the  Lord ;  men  shall 
call  you  the  MINISTERS  OF  OUR  GOD/  " 

The  Church  of  Christ,  did,  at  all  times,  during  its 
early  ages,  consider  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  tho 


BYW.     G.    BROWNLO'W.  209 

holding  of  slaves,  compatible  with  a  religious  profession 
and  the  practice  of  Christian  duties.  No  other  proof 
is  necessary  on  this  point,  than  the  sermons  of  St.  Paul 
and  St.  Peter.  These  sermons  will  be  found  in  Corin 
thians,  Ephesians,  Colossians  L,  Timothy,  Titus,  Phi 
lemon,  and  1st  Peter.  These  Scriptures  distinctly 
teach  the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Church;  and  no 
doctrine  therein  taught  stands  out  in  bolder  relief  than 
the  lawfulness  of  owning  and  dealing  in  slaves. 

Some  suppose  Abolitionism,  as  held  in  England  and 
America,  an  ism  of  modern  origin.  Not  so,  however; 
it  is  as  old  as  the  Council  of  Nice,  and  was  taught  in 
the  year  325,  when  Constantino  was  Emperor. 

The  "  illustrious  predecessors  "  of  our  New  England 
Abolitionists,  were  the  G-nostics  and  Maniclieans  of 
Asia  Minor.  These  fanatics  denied  the  lawfulness  of 
marriage,  and  contended  for  our  New  England  theory 
of  "  Free  Love  ;"  they  enacted  a  prohibitory  wine-law, 
similar  to  our  "  Maine  Liquor  Law ;"  they  required  by 
law,  all  men  to  enter  religious  societies,  and  attend 
church,  as  did  the  "  Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecticut ;  they 
decried  the  lawfulness  of  slavery ;  they  denounced 
slave-holders  as  violating  the  laws  of  God  and  man, 
just  as  our  Abolitionists  do  ;  they  aided  slaves  in  de 
serting  their  owners,  just  as  the  officers  of  our  "  under 
ground  railroads  "  do  ;  and  in  all  things  they  assumed 
to  be  more  holy,  more  perfect,  and  more  spiritual,  than 
other  men,  just  as  do  the  unmitigated  Anti-Slavery 
hypocrites  of  our  New  England  States  ! 

The  criticisms  of  the  gentleman,  touching  the  terms 
servant  and  slaves,  lead  me,  now  while  the  subject  is  on 
18* 


210  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

my  mind,  to  notice  these  terms,  although  I  consider  I 
was  sufficiently  explicit  in  a  former  speech. 

The  English  words  servant,  to  serve,  and  service,  ser 
ving,  &c.,  have  descended  into  our  language  from  the 
Latin  word  servus,  A  SLAVE  ;  and  these  words,  when 
first  introduced  into  the  language,  as  distinctly  carried 
with  them  the  idea  of  slavery,  as  does  now  any  term 
we  can  employ,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  wherever 
the  English  language  and  slavery  prevail.  In  no  slave- 
holding  country  has  the  word  servant  ever  been  applied 
to  a  freeman  as  a  legitimate  term  of  description ;  but 
in  non-slaveholding  communities,  these  words  are  oc 
casionally  used  in  a  different  sense,  but  in  every  in 
stance  erroneously;  because  they  are  without  adhe 
rence  to  their  derivation  and  analogy.  These  words, 
when  found  in  the  present  authorized  version  of  the 
Scriptures,  are  in  the  majority  of  instances  translated 
from  some  Greek  word  that  included  the  idea  of  slavery. 
I  could  give  examples  in  which  errors  exist,  in  this  par 
ticular,  in  our  translation  of  the  Christian  Scriptures ; 
such  as  John  xviii.,  36.  Mark  xiv.,  54.  John  xviii.,  18. 
Hebrews  iii.,  5.  He  that  seeks  the  truth  must  keep  in 
mind  the  distinction  between  the  different  terms  in  our 
Scriptures,  called  by  the  same  name,  "servants"  and 
not  suffer  his  mind  to  be  influenced  by  any  bias  which 
has  been  produced  by  other  agencies. 

St.  Paul  commences  his  epistle  to  the  Romans,  to 
the  Philippians,  and  to  Titus,  with  the  appellation  of 
servant.  In  the  first  case  he  calls  himself  the  servant 
and  apostle  of  Christ.  In  the  last  instance,  he  terms 
himself  the  servant  of  God,  and  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Peter,  in  his  second  epistle,  styles  himself  a 


B  Y     W  .     G  .    B  R  0  W  N  L  0  W  .  211 

servant  and  apostle  ;  Jude,  the  servant  of  Christ.  In 
all  these  instances  the  word  means  slave,  as  any  lin 
guist  will  testify,  and  is  used  commendatively,  but 
figuratively,  to  signify  their  entire  devotedness  to  the 
cause  in  which  they  are  engaged,  and  to  their  Leader, 
as  a  good  slave  is  to  his  master.  And  it  is  proper  to 
remark,  that  the  professing  Christian  is  indebted  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  which  was  approved  by  the 
inspired  Apostles,  for  the  lesson  of  humanity  and 
devotedness  here  so  plainly  taught  him ;  and  without 
which,  perhaps,  he  never  could  have  been  taught  this 
duty,  in  these  particulars,  so  pertinently  and  clearly. 
The  humility  and  devotedness  of  the  Christian  are  il 
lustrated  by  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  set  forth  in 
John  xv.,  20  :  "Remember  the  words  that  I  said  unto 
you,  the  servant  (or  slave]  is  not  greater  than  his 
Lord." 

But,  in  this  connection,  the  inquiry  naturally  occurs, 
how  happened  it  that  St.  Paul  found  it  necessary  to  in 
form  Timothy  that  the  law  forbade  the  stealing  or  en 
ticing  away  of  other  men's  slaves  ?  By  consulting  his 
epistles  to  the  Gentile  churches,  it  will  be  seen  that 
there  had  grown  up  among  them  some  new  and  villan- 
ous  "Free  Soil"  doctrines,  which  his  office  as  an 
apostle  made  it  his  duty  to  reprehend  in  unmistakable 
terms.  These  doctrines  were  the  abolition  of  marriage, 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery,  as  will  be  seen  by  examin 
ing  the  7th  chapter  of  first  Corinthians.  Some  of  the 
Gentile  Churches  advocated  the  doctrine  that,  if  a  man 
or  woman  of  the  faith  married  to  one  not  of  the  faith, 
that  said  marriage  should  be  abolished ;  so  also,  that  a 
slave  of  the  faith  should  be  set  free,  and  especially  by 


212  AFFIRMATIVE,   IV. 

a  believing  master ;  so  also,  the  believing  child  should 
be  discharged  from  the  authority  of  the  unbelieving 
parent.  The  promulgation  of  these  doctrines  filled 
society  witlT  disorder  where  the  apostles  labored,  and 
the  Church  with  confusion. 

In  his  instructions  to  Timothy,  St.  Paul  complains 
of  the  New  England  doctrines,  taught  by  Hymeneus 
and  Alexander,  two  unmitigated  "freedom-shriekers," 
and  denounces  them  as  blasphemous.  What  were  they  ? 
The  most  odious  of  them  was  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
and  for  which  he  " delivered  unto  Satan"  these  two 
reckless  anti-slavery  champions,  as  he  would  my 
reverend  opponent,  if  he  were  here,  and  could  hear  his 
arguments.  It  is  notorious,  moreover,  that  St.  Paul 
in  his  instructions  to  Timothy,  to  Titus,  to  the  Qolos- 
sians,  to  the  Ephesians,  &c.,  denounced  the  Aboli 
tionists  of  his  day,  and  warned  his  ministerial  brethren 
against  them.  Consistency  of  character,  to  say  nothing 
about  his  independence  in  avowing  his  sentiments, 
warrants  the  conclusion,  that  in  all  his  sermons  to  the 
masses,  and  such  as  were  not  published,  he  kept  up  a 
fierce  fire  upon  these  anti-slavery  men,  warning  the 
common  people,  including  the  slaves  themselves,  against 
their  wicked  and  seductive  influence. 

I  have  already  established  the  doctrine  and  action  of 
the  Church,  as  connected  with  the  subject  of  slavery, 
by  learned  writers  in  the  three  or  four  first  centuries ; 
men  who  were  renowned  for  their  piety,  and  claimed 
to  have  been  governed  by  the  immediate  teaching  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles.  During  every  century,  suffice 
it  to  say,  from  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  down  to  the 
present  time,  by  far  the  greatest  portion  of  the  world 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  213 

has  been  flooded  with  slavery  and  slaves ;  and,  in  all 
of  these  various  portions  of  the  earth,  the  slave  trade  waa 
carried  on.  According  to  BEDE,  Britain  furnished 
other  nations  with  slaves,  as  far  back  as  the  year  577. 
And  in  the  midst  of  all  the  feeling  of  rivalship  between 
the  Jews,  the  Pagans,  and  the  Christians  —  and,  in 
truth,  between  some  of  the  different  Christian  sects,  as 
to  their  systems  of  religion,  they  all  agreed  more  or 
less  in  the  right  to  own  and  trade  in  slaves.  They 
differed  in  their  opinions  as  to  who  should  hold  slaves, 
and  they  regulated  the  traffic  by  laws  very  different  in 
their  character.  The  law  of  the  Roman  empire,  in 
force  throughout  Italy  and  Sicily  during  the  fifth 
century,  enjoined  that  slaves  who  were  Christians  could 
not  be  held  by  those  who  were  not  of  the  same  faith. 
In  India,  the  creditor  could  take  the  children  of  the 
debtor,  and  keep  them  as  his  property,  and  as  his  slaves, 
until  the  debt  was  paid.  Among  the  Gentiles  this 
same  right  was  in  existence,  with  the  further  provision, 
that  the  child  could  be  subjected  to  perpetual  slavery. 
I  repeat  a  sentiment  I  have  already  avowed  and 
argued,  that  it  is  a  great  popular  error,  which  supposes 
all  of  our  species  to  be  born  equals.  I  do  not  believe 
one  word  of  it.  It  involves  the  absurd  proposition  that 
each  one  also  possesses  the  same  faculties  and  mind, 
and  to  the  same  extent.  Through  the  whole  animal 
world,  as  with  man,  the  amount  of  mental  power  each 
one  possesses,  is  in  exact  proportion  to  the  development 
of  the  nervous  system  and  animal  structure.  The 
highest  grade  of  development  is  found  among  the  Cau- 
cassian  species  of  man.  Physiologists  assert  that  the 
African  exhibits,  in  maturity,  the  imperfect  brain  of  a 


214  AFFIRMATIVE.    IV. 

Caucasian  foetus,  two  months  before  birth.  The  Malay 
and  Indian  exhibit  the  same  at  a  period  nearer  birth  ; 
while  the  Mongolian,  that  of  the  Caucasian  infant 
after  birth.  The  beard,  the  attribute  of  a  full  maturity 
among  men,  largest  in  the  Caucasian,  does  not  exist 
among  the  lower  grades  of  the  African.  COLOR  is  also 
found  the  darkest  where  the  development  is  the  least 
perfect,  and  the  most  distant  from  the  Caucasian. 
Hence,  a  particular  tribe  of  Arabs,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan,  from  their  intermarriages  among  blood  relations, 
have  so  degenerated  in  intellect,  as  to  have  become  as 
black  as  negroes  !  And  it  is  a  well-known  physiological 
fact,  that  Caucasian  parents  too  nearly  related,  exhibit 
offspring  of  the  Mongolian  type.  There  is  truth  in  the 
ancient  adage  —  "the  fathers  have  eaten  sour -grapes, 
and  the  children's  teeth  are  on  edge."  Whether, 
therefore,  we  view  the  tribes  of  ocean,  earth,  or  air, 
we  behold  a  regular  gradation  of  power  and  rules,  from 
man  down  to  the  atom,  demonstrating  the  truth  of  the 
lines  by  Pope : 

"  Whether  with  reason  or  with  instinct  blest, 
All  enjoy  that  power  that  suits  them  best." 

"Order  is  heaven's  first  law;  and  this  confessed, 
Some  are,  and  must  be  greater  than  the  rest." 

A  few  remarks  upon  certain  issues  he  raised  last 
evening,  and  I  conclude  this  speech.  First,  the  gentle 
man  said  my  mention  of  the  South  being  represented 
here,  was  a  crack  of  the  whip  intended  to  intimidate 
him,  but  that  it  would  fail !  How  absurd  such  an  infer 
ence  from  such  a  remark  !  Does  not  every  man  of 
sense  know,  who  has  listened  to  these  discussions,  that, 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  215 

from  first  to  last,  three  or  five  of  the  audience  to  one, 
have  been  against  me,  and  with  my  competitor,  in  sen 
timent  and  feeling  ?  Has  he  not  been  surrounded  by 
newspaper  reporters  friendly  to  his  side  of  the  question, 
while  I  have  had  none  to  report  or  write  letters  ?  Is 
not  the  entire  press  of  this  city  on  his  side  ?  Do  they 
not  give  long  reports  of  his  statistics  and  points,  while 
they  crowd  my  speeches  into  twelve  or  fifteen  lines,  as 
preliminary  to  what  they  say  in  praise  of  him  ?  Last, 
but  not  least,  has  he  not  had  a  horde  of  free  negroes 
arid  fugitive  slaves  here  all  the  time  clapping  for  him, 
and  hissing  me  ?  I  wish  to  intimidate  little  Air  am 
Pryne,  from  McGrawville,  New  York,  an  unscrupulous 
Abolition  missionary !  How  utterly  ridiculous  the 
idea  !  If  I  could  successfully  brow-beat  him,  it  would 
be  no  credit  to  me. 

But,  the  gentleman  bantered  me  to  repeat  this  debate 
— where  ?  "  In  all  the  principal  cities  of  the  North  ; 
both  parties  agreeing  as  to  time,  place,  &c."  This  is 
a  beautiful  challenge,  characteristic  of  the  gentleman ! 
If  he  will  so  amend  his  challenge  as  to  make  it  read 
thus,  I  am  in  for  the  war  :  u  Repeat  it  in  all  the  prin 
ciple  cities  of  the  North  and  South,  time  about  each 
side  of  the  line ;  Pryne  selecting  the  Northern,  and 
Brownlow  the  Southern  cities."  Here  is  a  fair  offer — 
one  which  will  give  him  a  chance  to  enlighten  the 
South,  whilst  I  enlighten  the  North  ! 

He  made  a  flourish  last  evening  over  the  falling  off 
of  the  South,  in  her  contributions  to  the  Tract,  Sunday 
School,  and  Bible  cause,  and  boasted  that  the  North 
doubled  the  South  in  her  contributions. 

The  American  Tract  Society  has  been  involved  in  a 


216  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

controversy  for  some  time,  the  South  charging  some  of 
its  vile  Abolition  managers  with  publishing  rank  Abo 
litionism  in  their  tracts.  The  South  does  not  choose 
to  contribute  to  any  such  dirty  work. 

As  it  regards  the  Sunday  School  cause,  whose  head 
quarters  are  in  this  city,  its  Treasurer,  a  pious  Anti- 
Slavery  man,  has  proved  a  defaulter  to  the  tune  of 
about  eighty  thousand  dollars,  by  speculating  in  Morus 
Multicaulis.  The  South  has  no  money  to  embark  in 
this  sort  of  enterprise. 

As  it  regards  the  Bible  cause,  the  people  of  the 
South  glory  in  promoting  that,  but  we  are  growing  in 
different  towards  keeping  so  many  in  offices,  upon  high 
salaries,  while  they  distribute  as  many  Abolition  docu 
ments,  as  they  do  Bibles  and  Testaments  ! 

His  statistical  comparison  of  the  North  and  South, 
I  will  not  only  meet  to-morrow  evening,  but  I  will  show 
that  the  reverse  of  what  he  said  is  true,  and  as  a  fair 
debater  I  notify  him  of  it,  and  call  on  him  to  come  pre 
pared  to  sustain  himself  with  the  proof.  I  shall  prove 
what  I  say  on  the  subject. 

He  notified  us  last  evening,  that  this  being  a  great 
National  question,  he  would  not  stoop  to  answer  ques 
tions  of  low  ribaldry.  Indeed  !  On  what  strange  meat 
has  this  our  hero  fed,  that  he  has  grown  so  great !  The 
question  I  propounded  to  him  is,  and  I  now  repeat  it — 
Would  he  be  willing  to  see  his  daughter  married  to  the 
son  of  such  distinguished  buck  negroes  as  Sam.  Ward 
or  Fred.  Douglass  ?  This  may  be  a  dark  question,  but 
it  is  a  great  Domestic  question,  intimately  connected 
with  the  great  National  question  !  I  still  call  for  an 
answer.  Let  him  say  Yes  or  No  !  If  he  will  not  con- 


BY  \V.    G.    BROWNLOW.  217 

sent  to  a  union  of  this  character  in  his  own  family,  why 
is  he  so  loud,  and  apparently  so  earnest  in  his  argu 
ments  to  persuade  others  to  do  so  ?  Does  he  preach  a 
doctrine  he  is  not  willing  to  practice  ?  Does  he  ask  me 
and  others  to  introduce  gentlemen  of  color  into  our 
domestic  circles,  and  is  unwilling  to  say  whether  he 
would  extend  to  them  a  similar  courtesy  ?  A  want  of 
candor  in  refusing  to  answer  the  question,  shows  a  want 
of  faith  in  the  correctness  and  propriety  of  his  own 
theory.  "  Thou  believest  that  there  is  one  God ;  thou 
doest  well :  the  devils  also  believe,  and  tremble.  But 
wilt  thou  know,  0  vain  man,  that  faith  without  works 
is  dead  ?"  These  are  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testa 
ment  (James  2d  and  19,  20),  a  book,  by  the  way,  which 
sanctions  slavery,  and  which,  in  consequence  thereof, 
the  gentleman  thinks  is  only  fit  for  a  foot-ball ! 

Will  he  do  it  ?  No,  not  him !  He  will  answer  it  as 
he  has  answered  all  my  arguments,  by  going  off  on 
some  side  issues.  He  promised  to  reply  to  my  scrip 
tural  arguments,  and  to  meet  the  express  passages  I 
laid  before  him;  but  he  has  never  done  it,  and  never 
will. 

He  concluded  by  declaring  that  it  was  high  time 
that  slavery  was  abolished  in  the  South,  and  by 
inuendo  intimated  that  it  would  be  done.  And  as  he 
avowed  his  determination  to  labor  in  the  cause,  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  others  of  his  kind,  perhaps  it  will  be 
gratifying  to  him  to  know  when  the  good  work  will  be 
accomplished.  I  am  able  to  tell  him  the  precise  time  when 
his  labors  will  terminate,  and  he  can  communicate  it 
to  his  co-laborers.  When  the  angel  Gabriel  sounds  the 
last  loud  trump  of  God,  and  calls  the  nations  of  the 
19 


218  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. 

/ 

earth  to  judgment  —  then,  and  not  before,  will  slavery 
be  abolished  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  !  Work 
on,  brother  Pryne,  in  the  good  cause  —  there  is  a  good 
time  coming,  and  I  hope  you  may  be  there  to 
see  it ! 

The  gentleman's  denunciation  of  the  late  Mr.  Brooks, 
of  South  Carolina,  and  his  application  of  the  term 
ruffian  to  him,  were  in  very  bad  taste,  since  that  gifted 
and  brave  man  is  in  his  grave,  and  has  been  for  a  length 
of  time.  Mr.  Brooks  was  an  honorable,  generous,  and 
high-minded  gentleman ;  and  he  who  says  otherwise  is 
the  slanderer  of  the  dead,  and  the  perpetrator  of  a 
falsehood  unworthy  of  a  professor  of  the  Christian 
religion ! 

As  I  am  still  within  my  time,  I  will  say  a  word  as 
to  his  comparison  of  the  soil  and  extent  of  territory 
in  New  York  and  North  Carolina.  Why  single  out 
North  Carolina?  She  is  a  gallant  State.  The  first 
blood  in  defence  of  American  liberty  was  shed  there, 
and  the  first  Declaration  of  Independence  was  issued 
there.  God  bless  North  Carolina !  But  she  is  an  old 
and  small  State,  compared  with  others  in  the  South, 
and  much  of  her  soil  is  thin  and  worn-out.  Why  not 
call  up  Texas,  side  by  side  with  the  great  State  of  New 
York.  Texas  will  make  three  such  States ;  and  be 
tween  the  soil,  as  to  fertility,  and  the  climate,  as 
adapted  to  agricultural  pursuits  and  stock-raising, 
there  is  no  comparison. 

Why  not  call  up  Arkansas  ?  According  to  the  re 
cords  of  the  general  land-office  of  Arkansas,  she  has 
an  area  of  55,000  square  miles,  equal  to  THIRTY-FIVE 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  219 

MILLIONS  OF  ACRES!  And  this  is  exclusive  of  her 
territory  covered  by  rivers,  lakes,  and  unexplored 
swamps,  which  will,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  be 
in  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  and  covered  over  with 
Southern  negroes,  cheerful,  contented,  and  happy,  as 
all  Southern  negroes  are  whose  minds  are  not  poisoned 
by  the  false  representations  of  such  unprincipled  Abo 
litionists  as  the  one  who  will  follow  me  in  a  short  time! 
Let  me  tell  him  that  Arkansas  alone  is  equal  to  the 
States  of  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts, 
Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  and  Maine ! 
Or,  if  the  gentleman  please,  Arkansas  is  as  large  as 
the  great  State  of  New  York,  with  New  Jersey  and 
Connecticut  thrown  in! 

But,  gentlemen,  you  shall  hear  from  me  to-morrow 
evening,  as  to  the  extent  of  the  territory  of  the  South, 
and  her  vast  capabilities.  The  wealth  of  a  people  is 
to  be  estimated  by  their  surplus  productions.  All  the 
enterprises  of  peace  and  war  depend  on  what  a  nation 
is  able  to  spend.  The  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  show,  that  the  exports  of  the  United 
States  amounted  last  year  to  $270,000,000,  exclusive 
of  gold  and  foreign  merchandise  re-exported.  Of  this 
amount,  the  productions  of  the  South  are  $185,000,000. 
In  addition  to  this,  we  sent  to  the  North,  from  the 
Slave  States,  $35,000,000  of  our  surplus  productions, 
worth,  when  manufactured,  $220,000,000,  equal  to 
$16.66  per  head  of  our  population,  supposing  it  to  be 
twelve  millions  —  a  dividend  which  no  nation  on  earth 
can  show !  I  thus  advertise  the  gentleman  of  what  is 
coming,  that  he  may  prepare  to  meet  it ! 


220  AFFIRMATIVE,    IV. — BY   W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

Thanking  you  for  your  attention,  I  yield  the  stand 
to  our  hero  of  freedom  and  amalgamation,  whose  style 
can  but  remind  you  of  the  lines  of  Wordsworth 

"Among  the  rocks  and  winding  crags  — 

Among  the  mountains  far  away  — 
Once  more  the  Ass  has  lengthened  out 
More  ruefully  and  endless  shout, 

The  long  dry  see-saw  of  his  horrible  bray  1" 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAYER!  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 
NEGATIVE,  IV.  —  BY  ABRAM  PRYNE. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  —  Permit  me,  before  I 
proceed  to  my  argument  of  this  evening,  to  brush 
away  from  the  track  of  this  debate  two  or  three  little 
incidental  matters  which  have  been  introduced  by  my 
opponent. 

In  the  first  place,  allow  me  to  say  that  the  coarse, 
vulgar,  and  brutal  allusion  to  myself  and  my  family,  I 
shall  not  touch  in  definite  terms,  nor  stoop  to  answer. 
Gentlemen,  I  stooped  quite  enough  when  I  engaged  in 
this  debate. 

Let  me  say,  however,  that  under  the  instructions  of 
their  own  good  mother,  my  children  are  taught  the 
principles  of  freedom  and  humanity;  and  should  my 
daughter,  on  reaching  the  years  of  womanhood,  be 
asked  for  her  hand  by  any  lordly  stripling  of  the  lash, 
she  would  answer  in  the  language  of  Whittier's  Yankee 
Girl: 

"  With  a  scorn  in  her  eye  which  the  gazer  could  feel, 
And  a  glance  like  the  sunshine  that  flashes  on  steel. 

"Go  back,  haughty  Southron  !  thy  treasures  of  gold 
Are  dim  with  the  blood  of  the  hearts  thou  hast  sold ; 
Thy  home  may  be  lovely,  but  round  it  I  hear 
The  crack  of  the  whip  and  the  footsteps  of  fear ! 

19*  (221) 


222  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

"  And  the  sky  of  thy  South  may  be  brighter  than  ours, 
And  greener  thy  landscapes  and  fairer  thy  flowers  ; 
But  dearer  the  blast  round  our  mountains  which  raves, 
Than  the  sweet  summer  zephyr  which  breathes  over  slaves  1 

"  Full  low  at  thy  bidding  thy  negroes  may  kneel, 
With  the  iron  of  bondage  on  spirit  and  heel ; 
Yet  know  that  the  Yankee  girl  sooner  would  be 
In  fetters  with  them,  than  in  freedom  with  thee !" 

A  single  word  as  to  the  practical  question  of  the 
mixture  of  the  races.  I  believe  it  was  Henry  Clay  who 
computed  what  number  of  years  it  would  take,  accord 
ing  to  the  progress  of  Southern  amalgamation,  to 
bleach  the  whole  slave  population  white.  If  gentlemen 
wish  to  see  where  this  evil  prevails,  let  them  look  at 
the  variegated  colors  in  the  South. 

During  this  discussion,  there  have  been  repeated 
allusions  to  Northern  men,  and  they  have  been  held  up 
to  scorn  as  guilty  of  pusillanimity  and  hypocrisy.  Mr. 
Garrison  (with  whom  I  do  not  agree,  but  whom  I  honor 
as  a  noble  and  true  man),  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
and  others,  have  been  made  the  objects  of  such  attacks. 
Why,  gentlemen,  if  this  anti-slavery  enterprise  had 
done  no  other  good  than  to  bring  into  public  view  those 
lofty  and  glorious  characters  that  lead  it,  realizing  once 
more  the  old  heroic  age  in  their  manifestations  of  moral 
heroism,  it  would  be  well  worth  all  it  has  cost. 

And,  gentlemen,  although  Northern  men  have  some 
times  been  altogether  too  much  disposed  to  cringe  to 
the  South,  I  believe  that  Pennsylvania  has  had  a  man 
[Grow]  who,  in  the  last  Congress,  was  able  to  show 
that  Northern  blood,  although  slow  in  rising,  is,  when 
once  up,  quite  able  to  protect  its  rights. 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  ZZo 

Criminal  statistics  with  reference  to  the  North  have 
been  given  by  my  opponent ;  and  he  has  laid  great 
stress  on  the  number  of  criminals  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  In  passing  I  would  merely  remark,  what  you 
all  doubtless  understand,  that  the  city  of  New  York 
being  the  great  entrepot  of  the  continent,  the  mass  of 
foreigners  from  all  nations  flock  there ;  so  that,  of 
course,  whatever  may  be  the  other  conditions,  there 
will  be  more  criminals  there.  Besides,  the  very  class 
of  criminals  that  the  North  punishes,  go  unwhipped  of 
justice  in  the  South. 

We  send  to  prison  our  robbers,  thieves,  and  mur 
derers  —  our  violators  of  female  chastity  —  our  dc- 
frauders  of  the  laborer — our  ruffians  who  commit  assault 
— our  abductors  of  young  girls  from  their  homes  and 
parents ;  while  the  South  sends  to  Congress  her  ruffians 
who  commit  rape — her  robbers  of  cradles — her  viola 
tors  of  wives,  sellers  of  maidens — her  maimers  of  men, 
and  whippers  of  women.  Besides,  the  single  State  of 
New  York  has  a  population  one-third  as  great  as  all 
the  Slave  States,  counting  in  their  slaves ;  so  that  in 
criminal  statistics,  she  ought  to  balance  five  of  the 
largest  Slave  States.  Lock  up  your  criminals  in  these 
five  States,  and  then  we  will  count  with  you. 

Northern  infidelity  has  been  much  harped  on  in  the 
speeches  of  my  opponent.  Gentlemen,  there  are  two 
kinds  of  infidelity.  There  is  one  kind  that  prays  — • 
and  steals  negroes;  that  sings  psalms  —  and  whips 
women ;  that  cants  theology  —  and  robs  cradles  ! 
However  sound  Southern  theology  may  be  in  its 
theory  —  practical  infidelity,  scorning  the  rights  of 
man,  disregarding  the  claims  of  humanity,  trampling 


224  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

on  the  laws  of  God,  is  the  general  practice  of  the 
South;  and  its  theology  will  never  be  able  to  fill  the 
wide  chasm  between  its  profession  of  religion  and  its 
practices.  If  we  must  have  infidelity  of  either  type,  I 
much  prefer  that  type  of  unbelief  which  is  question 
able  in  its  theory,  to  the  most  orthodox  theology,  when 
so  cruel,  wicked,  and  inhuman  in  its  practices. 

My  opponent  has  thought  proper  to  scorn,  and  flout 
at  the  Methodist  Church  of  the  North.  I  am  not  a 
Methodist,  nor  a  defender  of  the  Methodist  Church 
North ;  but  let  me  say  that,  whatever  there  is  of  right 
and  of  power  in  that  church,  it  has  reared  itself  into 
the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  Christian  world,  because 
of  the  recent  movement  among  the  Methodists  North 
against  American  Slavery.  All  through  central  New 
York — by  virtue  of  the  efforts  of  the  Methodist  Anti- 
Slavery  paper,  started  on  an  independent  basis  —  the 
spirit  of  Abolitionism  is  rising  so  high  in  the  Methodist 
Church  North,  that,  if  the  next  General  Conference 
should  not  cast  out  every  slaveholder  within  its  bounds, 
there  will  be  another  division,  and  one*  that  will  purify 
the  Methodist  Church  North,  and  make  it  Anti-Slavery. 

I  have  found  it  difficult  to  get  from  my  opponent  the 
material  of  this  debate,  and  have  been  compelled  to 
allude,  in  my  previous  addresses,  to  many  arguments 
not  yet  offered  by  him,  but  which  are  usually  urged  on 
the  Pro-Slavery  side  of  the  question.  I  shall  pursue 
to-night  the  same  course. 

One  argument  often  urged  against  the  Anti-Slavery 
men  of  the  North,  is,  that  the  agitation  of  the  freedom 
of  the  slave  tends  to  violate  the  compromises  —  the 
guarantees  to  the  South,  entered  into  on  the  formation 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  225 

of  the  American  Constitution.  Where  are  those  gua* 
rantees  ?  Are  they  really  found  in  the  Constitution, 
or  do  they  exist  only  in  the  brains  of  Southern  men  ? 
Are  they  in  the  preamble,  which  I  read  and  commented 
upon  the  other  night  ?  Are  they  in  this  clause  ? 

"  No  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property, 
without  due  process  of  law." 

Yet  three  millions  of  persons  have,  without  the  sha 
dow  of  a  shade  of  legal  process,  been  deprived  of  liberty, 
and  even  of  the  right  to  own  property,  by  the  South, 
which  claims  a  right  to  do  this,  guarantied  by  the  Con 
stitution.  What  is  "  due  process  of  law  "  but  a  trial  by 
jury  ?  Is  it  "  due  process  of  law  "  when  a  man  is  im 
prisoned  or  placed  in  bondage,  even  before  he  is  ac 
cused  ?  Is  it  udue  process  of  law"  when  the  lash  is 
laid  upon  him  without  a  legal  trial  ?  Carry  out  this 
clause  of  the  Constitution  in  its  proper  spirit,  and  so 
far  from  being  a  guarantee  of  slavery,  it  will  prove  a 
guarantee  of  freedom,  arid  will  sweep  American  slavery 
from  the  nation. 

"  '  Due  process  of  law.'  This  phrase  (a  technical  term  in 
law)  means  indictment  and  trial  by  jury,  for  some  alleged 
crime,  and  verdict  and  sentence  in  open  court.  For  this  de 
finition  we  have  the  authority  of  Lord  Coke,  Judge  Story, 
(in  his  Commentaries,)  and  also  of  Judge  Bronson.  (Hill's 
Reports,  IV.,  146.)  By  the  latter  two,  the  definition  is 
made  to  apply  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  And 
Judge  Bronson's  decision  sets  aside  a  State  enactment,  on 
the  ground  that  it  takes  away  property  without  this  '  due 
process  of  law/  Then  liberty  cannot  be  taken  away  without 
the  same  <  due  process  of  law/  even  though  a  State  enactment 
could  be  produced  in  support  of  it.  The  writ  of  Habeas  Cor 
pus,  as  before  shown,  secures  this  '  due  process  of  law '  for 
all  who  are  held  in  slavery,  and  the  process  would  release 


226  NEGATIVE,   IV. 

them  all.  No  slave  in  America  was  ever  reduced  to  slavery 
by  i  due  process  of  law/  It  is  impossible  thus  to  enslave 
men,  for  though  persons  may  be  imprisoned  for  crime,  under 
'  due  process  of  law/  and,  to  that  extent,  deprived  of  liberty, 
yet  they  cannot  thus  be  reduced  to  'goods  and  chattels  per 
sonal/  or  made  the  ' property'  of  their  fellow-men.  There 
is  no  legal  process  for  this;  nor  can  it  be  done,  even  when, 
'  in  cases  of  invasion  or  rebellion,  the  public  safety  may  re 
quire  '  i  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus '  to  '  be  suspended/  There 
is  neither  law  nor  valid  precedent  for  any  such  process." — 
National  Charters,  Goodel. 

But  where,  in  the  Constitution,  will  we  find  these 
guarantees  in  favor  of  slavery  ?  In  that  clause  which 
declares  that  the  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended 
— that  glorious  writ  that  the  stern  old  barons  wrung 
from  the  tyrant  King  John,  and  which  our  fathers  wove 
into  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States — that  writ 
under  which  every  man  restrained  of  his  freedom  has 
the  right  to  appeal  to  the  courts,  and  have  an  investi 
gation  into  the  cause  of  his  detention.  Let  that  writ 
be  issued  by  the  Judges  of  the  United  States  Courts, 
as  they  are  bound  to  issue  it,  under  the  Constitution, 
on  the  complaint  of  every  slave  in  this  nation.  Under 
that  clause  which  provides  that  "  no  person  shall  be  de 
prived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process 
of  law,"  let  them  inquire  why  these  slaves  are  held  in 
bondage,  and  let  them  find  the  law  for  American  slavery. 
Under  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  tried  by  a  judge 
worthy  of  the  bench,  every  slave  in  the  nation  would 
be  set  free ;  for  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
would  bear  him  out  in  that  decision. 

It  may  be  replied,  perhaps,  that  Judge  Taney  has 
made  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  which  he  says  that 
black  men  have  no  rights  which  white  men  are  bound 


BY     ABRAM     PRYNE.  227 

to  respect.  I  admit  that  when  a  judge  descends  from 
the  dignity  of  the  judicial  station,  prostitutes  his  high 
office,  and  becomes  the  mere  caterer  of  a  political  party, 
turns  the  United  States  Court  room  into  a  political 
caucus,  makes  his  decisions  under  the  pressure  of  poli 
tical  influence — you  cannot  trust  him  to  carry  out  the 
Constitution,  or  anything  else.  But  when  we  have  such 
judges,  we  are  not  without  redress.  Men  do  not  live 
always.  We  shall,  I  hope,  get  very  soon  a  better  set 
of  judges  upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  and 
then,  under  those  clauses  of  the  Constitution  that  I 
have  named,  American  slavery  can  be  and  will  be  abo 
lished.  Gentlemen,  I  have  no  apology  to  offer  for 
bringing  to  bear  upon  men  in  high  places  who  are  de 
relict  in  their  duty,  as  scathing  a  rebuke  as  I  would 
direct  at  the  humblest  mechanic  in  Philadelphia,  did  I 
deem  him  guilty  of  as  flagrant  an  offence. 

Judge  Taney's  decision  is  based  upon  the  historical 
fiction,  that  when  the  Constitution  was  framed,  no  con 
siderable  body  of  people  in  the  country  regarded  the 
negro  as  having  any  rights,  and  therefore  the  Consti 
tution,  whatever  its  language,  cannot  be  supposed  to 
recognise  any  rights  for  him.  I  explode  this  assump 
tion  by  quoting  from  the  history  of  the  times  immedi 
ately  preceding  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 

William  Pinckney  said  in  1789,  the  very  year  the 
Constitution  was  adopted : 

"Sir — Iniquitous  and  most  dishonorable  to  Maryland,  is 
that  dreary  system  of  partial  bondage  which  her  laws  have 
hitherto  supported  with  a  solicitude  worthy  of  a  better  object, 
and  her  citizens  by  their  practice,  countenanced.  Founded 
in  a  disgraceful  traffic,  to  which  the  parent  country  lent  its 


228  NEGATIVE,   IV. 

fostering  aid,  from  motives  of  interest,  but  which  even  she 
•would  have  disdained  to  encourage,  had  England  been  the 
destined  mart  of  such  inhuman  merchandise,  its  continuance 
is  as  shameful  as  its  origin." 

In  the  Convention  that  drafted  the  Constitution  — 

"Mr.  Madison  declared,  he  ' thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in 
the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in 
men/— 3  Mad.  Pap.,  1429. 

"  On  motion  of  Mr.  Randolph,  the  word  c  SERVITUDE'  was 
struck  out,  and  (  SERVICE'  unanimously  inserted — the  former 
being  thought  to  express  the  condition  of  SLAVES,  and  the 
latter  the  obligation  of  FREE  PERSONS/' — 2b.  3.,  p.  1569. 

In  the  Virginia  Convention  to  ratify  the  Constitution, 
Patrick  Henry  argued  "  the  power  of  Congress,  under 
the  United  States'  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  States,'  and  added.: 

"Another  thing  will  contribute  to  bring  this  event  about. 
Slavery  is  detested.  We  feel  its  effects.  We  deplore  it  with 
all  the  pity  of  humanity." — Debates  Va.  Convention,  p.  463. 

"  In  the  debates  of  the  North  Carolina  Convention,  Mr. 
Iredell,  afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  said  — '  When  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery  takes 
place,  it  will  be  an  event  which  must  be  pleasing  to  every 
generous  mind,  and  every  friend  of  human  nature/  " — 
u Power  of  Congress"  &c.,  pp.  31—2. 

And  yet  Judge  Taney  says  nobody  believed  at  that 
time  that  the  negro  had  any  rights  to  be  respected. 

Another  defence  offered  by  the  South  against  the 
abolition  of  their  slave  system  is,  that  their  slave  pro 
perty  cannot  be  interfered  with  without  the  violation 
of  State  sovereignty.  What  is  State  sovereignty  ?  Is 
it  the  unrestrained  power  to  inflict  wrong  in  the  name 
of  law  ?  Sovereignty  has  its  own  natural  limits.  God 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  229 

himself  is  not  a  sovereign  in  such  a  sense  that  he  has 
a  right  to  do  wrong  ;  nor  is  any  State  sovereign  in  such 
a  sense.  The  sovereignty  of  the  States  is  bounded  by 
the  objects  and  purposes  for  which  States  are  instituted, 
and  only  sweeps  the  area  of  their  legitimate  power, 
which  is  to  protect  the  rights  of  man.  When  a  State, 
under  its  claim  of  State  sovereignty,  wields  its  power, 
not  for  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  man,  but  for  the 
destruction  of  the  rights  of  more  than  half  its  inhabi 
tants,  such  an  act.  so  far  from  being  in  harmony  with 
the  principles  of  State  sovereignty,  is  in  harmony  only 
with  the  principles  of  State  mllany.  I  deny  the  ex 
istence  of  any  State  sovereignty  which  confers  a  power 
to  do  wrong. 

Cromwell,  when  charged  with  wanting  allegiance 
to  the  king,  in  demanding  the  execution  of  Charles, 
replied : 

ft  No,  I  am  true  in  my  allegiance  to  the  king.  Bring  me 
a  king,  and  I  am  ready  to  bow  down  to  him,  to  do  him  reve 
rence,  to  obey  his  authority.  But  this  thing  that  you  have 
here  is  a  beardless,  effeminate  boy;  there  is  no  kingship  about 
him,  no  royalty  in  his  soul,  nothing  kingly  in  his  person  or 
his  life ;  and  by  virtue  of  all  my  regard  for  true  kingly 
dignity,  I  am  bound  to  see  that  this  thing  be  displaced  from 
the  seat  of  the  king." 

So  say  I  with  reference  to  State  sovereignty.  I"  am 
ready  to  bow  to  State  sovereignty,  and  pay  her  alle 
giance.  But  when  you  bring  me  in  the  presence  of 
State  villany,  and  demand,  in  the  name  of  State  sove 
reignty,  that  I  shall  do  her  homage,  I  answer,  "  This 
thing  to  which  you  ask  me  to  bow,  is  not  State  sove- 
20 


230  NEGATIVE,     IV. 

reignty ;  it  is  State  villany ;  State  sovereignty  demands 
the  freedom  of  every  slave." 

Besides,  State  sovereignty  must  be  limited  by  the 
other  clause  of  the  Constitution : 

"  Congress  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  of  this  Union  a 
republican  form  of  government." 

The  States,  I  take  it,  have  no  sovereignty  that  over 
rides  this  power  of  Congress  to  guarantee  to  every 
State  a  republican  form  of  government ;  and  if  slavery 
is  at  all  points  antagonistic  to  the  true  idea  of  republi 
can  government,  the  very  guarantee  to  each  State  of  a 
republican  form  of  government  would  sweep  slavery 
from  the  nation. 

Another  objection  to  the  Anti-Slavery  movement 
often  made  by  Southern  men,  is,  that  the  agitation  of 
this  slavery  question  will  drive  the  South  out  of  the 
Union.  Well,  what  of  it  ?  What  if  the  agitation 
should  drive  the  Southern  States  out  of  the  Union  ? 
Who  cares  ?  Not  I.  What  interest  has  the  North  in 
the  Union  ?  Of  what  value  is  the  Union  to  us  when 
we  have  been  used  to  catch  the  slaves  of  the  South  — 
when  the  Union  has  tied  us  to  the  incubus  of  American 
slavery?  Of  what  value  is  it  to  us  when  what  the 
South  wants  of  us  is  that  we  should  help  her  fight  her 
battles  for  slavery  ?  Though  I  am  not  a  disunionist, 
yet  I  cannot,  by  any  demonstration,  be  made  to  shrink 
from  affirming  that  if  the  question  be,  whether  slavery 
shall  be  abolished  by  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  or 
shall  continue  without  its  dissolution,  I  am,  such  being 
the  terms,  no  defender  of  the  Union. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  am  not  in  the  least  afraid  that  the 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  231 

South  will  go  out  of  the  Union.  Visiting  the  county 
poor-house  before  I  left  home,  I  saw  the  paupers,  who 
were  most  of  them  cripples  or  infirm,  eating  their  com 
fortable  dinner,  everything  around  showing  that  they 
were  well  cared  for.  I  cannot  but  think  that  this 
threat  of  the  South  that  she  will  dissolve  the  Union, 
has  just  as  much  pith  and  weight  as  would  the  threat 
of  those  county  paupers,  that  if  they  could  not  have 
their  own  way,  they  would  dissolve  the  union  with  the 
county.  I  rather  think  that  the  county  could  get 
along  without  them,  and  that  the  North  would  survive 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

All  this  bluster  about  going  out  of  the  Union  is  not 
worth  the  wind  it  costs.  It  reminds  me  of  a  story  I 
have  heard.  A  young  man,  who  wished  to  be  con 
sidered  a  great  fighting  character,  rushed  into  a  crowd 
with  much  bluster  and  noise,  and  wanted  to  whip  some 
body.  His  father,  pretending  to  be  fearful  that  he 
might 'do  some  damage,  rushed  in  after  him,  caught 
him  and  held  him,  calling  on  others  to  assist  him, 
declaring  that  he  was  a  terrible  fellow  in  a  fight. 
Presently,  a  brawny  Yankee  stepped  forward  and 
squared  off,  exclaiming,  "  If  that  fellow  wants  to  fight, 
let  him  come  on !"  The  noisy  bully  did  not  like  the 
looks  of  his  eye,  and  had  no  notion  to  fight,  only 
intending  to  get  a  reputation  for  courage  cheap ;  and 
frightened  by  this  unexpected  turn  of  affairs,  in  an 
agony  of  fear  cried  out  to  those  around  him :  "  Hold 
that  other  fellow !  hold  that  other  fellow,  some  of  you ! 
I  guess  dad  can  manage  me."  So  the  South  will  cry 
out,  when  she  sees  that  the  North  is  ready  to  leave 


232  NEGATIVE,   IV. 

the  Union  :  "  Hold  that  other  fellow,  some  of  you !  I 
guess  dad  can  manage  me." 

Let  me,  in  this  connection,  relate  another  anecdote. 
A  tall  six  footer  in  Western  New  York  was  in  the 
habit  of  getting  drunk  occasionally.  In  one  of  these 
drunken  fits,  he  determinined  that  he  would  frighten 
his  wife,  by  making  her  believe  that  he  intended  to. 
smash  all  her  crockery-ware.  So,  when  he  reached 
home,  he  put  on  as  solemn  a  manner  as  he  could  com 
mand,  and  said  to  her :  "  Polly,  set  all  the  dishes  out 
on  the  table,  for  I  am  going  to  break  them  all  —  every 
one  of  them."  Polly  at  once  set  them  out,  and  then, 
taking  an  old  cracked  pitcher,  she  dashed  it  upon  the 
hearth,  breaking  it  into  a  hundred  pieces,  and  called  out 
to  him :  "  Come  on,  Seth,  I'll  help  you."  "  Polly,"  says 
Seth,  "  I  guess  you  can  set  up  the  dishes  for  the 
present."  So  the  South  is  ready  to  make  a  great 
noise,  and  threaten  to  break  all  the  dishes,  so  long  as 
she  thinks  she  frightens  the  North ;  but  let  the  North 
show  a  disposition  to  meet  her  half-way,  and  she  will 
say  :  "  Polly,  I  guess  you  can  set  up  the  dishes." 

My  opponent  has  asserted  that  the  right  of  property 
in  man  is  a  universal  right  acknowledged  in  all  nations. 
I  answer  him  in  the  magnificent  sentences  of  Lord 
Brougham : 

"  Tell  me  not  of  rights ;  talk  not  of  the  property  of  the 
planter  in  his  slaves.  I  deny  the  right  j  I  acknowledge  not 
the  property.  In  vain  you  tell  me  of  laws  that  sanction  such 
a  claim.  There  is  a  law  above  all  the  enactments  of  human 
codes  —  the  same  throughout  the  world,  the  same  in  all 
times :  it  is  the  law  written  by  the  finger  of  God  on  the 
hearts  of  men ;  and  by  that  law,  unchangeable  and  eternal, 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  233 

while  men  despise  fraud  and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor  blood, 
they  shall  reject  with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty  phan 
tasy  that  man  can  hold  property  in  man." 

I  am  satisfied  to  offset  the  sentiments  of  Brouo-ham 

O 

against  the  assertion  of  my  opponent.  The  assump 
tion  of  the  right  of  property  in  man  is  too  plain  a  case 
to  argue.  Some  things  cannot  be  made  more  plain  by 
argument,  and  the  right  of  man  to  self-ownership  is 
an  axiom. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  testimony  of  the 
the  Fathers,  as  being  in  favor  of  slavery.  We  have 
been  told  that  Washington  and  Jefferson,  and  the 
other  founders  of  the  Republic,  supported  the  slave 
system. 

I  read  the  testimony  of  Gen.  Washington.  In  a 
letter  to  John  F.  Mercer,  dated  Sept.-,  1786,  Gen. 
Washington  says: 

"I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular  circumstances 
should  compel  me  to  it,  to  possess  another  slave  by  purchase, 
it  being  among  my  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by 
which  slavery,  in  this  country,  may  be  abolished  by  law." 

I  could  give  you  extracts  from  other  letters  quite  as 
pertinent;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to  detain  you  with 
reading  them. 

Let  us  hear  the  voice  of  Jefferson: 

"  There  must  doubtless  be  an  unhappy  influence  on  the 
manners  of  our  people,  produced  by  the  existence  of  slavery 
among  us.  The  whole  commerce  between  most  of  slaves  is 
a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions  —  the 
most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading 
submissions  on  the  other." 

****** 

20* 


234  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

"And  can  the  liberties  of  a  nation  be  thought  secure, 
when  we  have  removed  their  only  firm  basis  —  a  conviction 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  these  liberties  are  of  the  gift 
of  God;  that  they  are  not  to  be  violated  but  with  His  wrath? 
Indeed,  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  1  reflect  that  God 
is  just,;  that  His  justice  cannot  sleep  forever  ;  that,  consi 
dering  numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means  only,  a  revolution 
of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situations,  is  among 
possible  events ;  that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatu 
ral  interference  !  The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  which  can 
take  sides  with  us  in  such  a  contest." 

I  could  multiply  quotations  from  Jefferson  to  the 
same  effect. 

What  is  the  voice  of  Madison?  Advocating  the 
abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  he  said: 

"  The  dictates  of  humanity,  the  principles  of  the  people, 
the  national  safety  and  happiness,  and  prudent  policy,  require 
it  of  us.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  by  expressing  a  national 
disapprobation  of  the  trade,  we  may  destroy  it,  and  save  our 
country  from  reproaches,  and  our  posterity  from  the  imbeci 
lity  ever  attendant  on  a  country  filled  with  slaves." 

Monroe  says : 

"We  have  found  that  this  evil  has  preyed  upon  the  very 
vitals  of  the  Union,  and  has  been  prejudicial  to  all  the  States 
in  which  it  has  existed." 

Hear  the  language  of  Patrick  Henry: 

"  It  would  rejoice  my  very  soul  that  every  one  of  my 
fellow-beings  were  emancipated.  We  ought  to  lament  and 
deplore  the  necessity  of  holding  our  fellow-men  in  bondage. 
Believe  me,  I  shall  honor  the  Quakers  for  their  noble  efforts 
to  abolish  slavery." 

John  Randolph,  in  a  letter  to  Wm.  Gibbons,  in 
1820,  says: 


BY   ABRAM   PRYNE  235 

"With  unfeigned  respect  and  regard,  and  as  sincere  a 
deprecation  of  the  extension  of  slavery  and  its  horrors,  as 
any  other  man,  be  he  whom  he  may,  I  aru  your  friend,  in 
the  literal  sense  of  that  much-abused  word.  I  say  much 
abused,  because  it  is  applied  to  the  leagues  of  vice,  and  ava 
rice,  and  ambition,  instead  of  good-will  toward  man  from 
love  of  Him  who  is  the  Prince  of  Peace." 

Thus  I  could  go  on,  and  give  you  page  after  page 
of  similar  testimony,  from  men  of  the  South  as  well 
as  the  North.  But  I  will  only  add  the  testimony  of 
the  "Old  Dominion" — of  Virginia  herself — before  she 
found  that  she  could  make  money  by  breeding  slaves. 

The  "  Virginia  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Sla 
very,"  organized  in  1791  (in  those  days,  they  had  an 
Abolition  Society  in  Virginia !),  addressed  Congress  in 
these  words : 

"Your  memorialists,  fully  aware  that  righteousness  exalt- 
eth  a  nation,  and  that  slavery  is  not  only  an.  odious  degra 
dation,  but  an  outrageous  violation  of  one  of  the  most  essential 
rights  of  human  nature,  and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  precepts 
of  the  (Zospel,  which  breathes  '  peace  on  earth  and  good-will 
to  men,'  lament  that  a  practice  so  inconsistent  with  true 
policy  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  men,  should  subsist  in 
so  enlightened  an  age,  and  among  a  people  professing  that 
all  mankind  are,  by  nature,  equally  entitled  to  freedom." 

The  first  General  Congress  of  the  colonies  assembled 
in  Philadelphia  in  September,  1774.  Preparatory  to 
that  measure,  the  Convention- of  Virginia  assembled  in 
August  of  that  year,  to  appoint  delegates  to  the  Gene 
ral  Congress.  An  exposition  of  the  rights  of  British 
America,  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  was  laid  before  this  Con 
vention,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract : 


236  NEGATIVED    IV. 

<TEIE  ABOLITION  OP  DOMESTIC  SLAVERY  is  the  greatest 
object  of  desire  in  these  Colonies,  where  it  was  unhappily 
introduced  in  their  infant  state.  But,  previous  to  the  en 
franchisement  of  the  slaves,  it  is  necessary  to  exclude  further 
importations  from  Africa.  Yet  our  repeated  attempts  to 
eflect  this  by  prohibitions,  and  by  imposing  duties  which 
might  amount  to  prohibition,  have  been  hitherto  defeated  by 
his  Majesty's  negative;  thus  preferring  the  immediate  ad 
vantage  of  a  few  African  corsairs  to  the  lasting  interests  of 
the  American  States,  and  the  rights  of  human  nature,  deeply 
wounded  by  this  infamous  practice. "  —  Am.  Archives,  4th 
series,  vol.  i.  p.  696. 

The  Virginia  Convention,  before  separating,  adopted 
the  following  resolution: 

"Resolved,  We  will  neither  ourselves  import,  nor  purchase 
any  slave  or  slaves  imported  by  any  other  person,  after  the 
first  day  of  November  next,  either  from  AFRICA,  the  WEST 
INDIES,  or  ANY  OTHER  PLACE/' — Ibid.  p.  687. 

North  Carolina  also  held  her  Provincial  Convention 
in  August  of  the  same  year,  and 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  not  import  any  slave  or  slaves,  or 
purchase  any  slave  or  slaves  imported  or  brought  into  the 
Province  by  others,  from  any  part  of  the  world,  after  the  first 
day  of  November  next."  —  Ibid.  p.  735. 

Georgia  spoke  as  follows : 

"We,  therefore,  the  Representatives  of  the  extensive 
District  of  Darien,  in  the  colony  of  Georgia,  having  now 
assembled  in  Congress,  by  authority  and  free  choice  of  the 
inhabitants  of  said  District,  now  freed  from  their  fetters,  do 
resolve  : 

"  To  show  the  world  that  we  are  not  influenced  by  any 
contracted  or  interested  motives,  but  a  general  philanthropy 
for  ALL  MANKIND,  of  whatever  climate,  language,  or  com 
plexion,  we  hereby  declare  our  disapprobation  and  abhorrence 


BYABRAM    PRYNE.  237 

of  the  unnatural  practice  of  slavery  in  America  (however 
the  uncultivated  state  of  our  country,  or  other  specious  argu 
ments,  may  plead  for  it),  a  practice  founded  in  injustice  and 
cruelty,  and  highly  dangerous  to  our  liberties  (as  well  as 
lives),  debasing  part  of  our  fellow-creatures  below  men,  and 
corrupting  the  virtue  and  morals  of  the  rest,  and  is  laying 
the  basis  of  that  liberty  we  contend  for  (and  which  we  pray 
the  Almighty  to  continue  to  the  latest  posterity),  upon  a  very 
wrong  foundation.  We,  therefore,  Resolve,  at  all  times  to 
use  our  utmost  endeavors  for  the  manumission  of  our  slaves 
in  this  colony,  upon  the  most  safe  and  equitable  footing  for 
the  master  and  themselves."  JAN.  12th,  1775.  —  Hid.  p. 
1136. 

You  will  now  agree,  I  think,  that  the  testimony  of 
the  Fathers  is  on  my  side,  not  that  of  my  opponent. 

In  the  course  of  this  debate,  much  has  been  said 
against  the  efforts  to  abolish  slavery,  because  of  the  de 
graded  character  and  mode  of  life  of  such  colored  per 
sons  as  have  escaped  to  the  North ;  and  my  opponent 
has  given  you  the  horrors  of  the  state  of  society  in  Ca 
nada.  It  has  been  affirmed  that  the  slave  is  unable  to 
take  care  of  himself.  How  happens  it,  then,  that  he 
takes  care  of  himself  and  his  master  ?  for  his  master 
does  not  work.  Poor  fellow  !  he  must  have  a  hard  task 
to  take  care  of  himself,  with  a  half-dozen  lazy  whites 
hanging  to  the  skirts  of  his  tattered  garments  to  filch 
their  living  out  of  him.  What  is  it  but  adding  insult 
to  injury,  when  you  thus  load  him  with  fetters,  steal 
his  wages,  and  then  affirm  that  he  cannot  take  care  of 
himself? 

But  let  us  see  whether  the  slaves  that  escape  to  the 
North  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Let  us  see 
what  is  their  character  with  the  people  of  Canada.  I 
read  an  extract  from  the  Toronto  Journal: 


238  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

"The  colored  people  of  Toronto  are  an  example  in  point 
of  industry,  sobriety,  and  morality,  to  their  white  neighbors. 
Out  of  5346  persons  committed  to  Toronto  jail,  last  year, 
5268  were  white  men  and  women  !  ! !  Out  of  1057  ladies 
committed,  only  eight  were  colored.  We  judge  people  by 
their  conduct,  not  by  their  color." 

Let  me  read  to  you  also  the  testimony  of  an  ex-she 
riff  in  Canada:  , 

"  I  have  also  great  pleasure  in  stating,  that  so  far  as  my 
knowledge  of  the  colored  population  of  Toronto  is  concerned, 
great  credit  is  due  to  them  for  their  general  good  conduct 
and  industry,  and  that  during  the  long  period  in  which  I 
continued  to  hold  the  office  of  Sheriff,  fewer  convictions  for 
offences  took  place  in  the  Superior  Courts  and  Courts  of 
Quarter  Sessions,  which  I  had  to  attend,  than,  when  com 
pared  with  the  white  population,  might  have  been  expected. 
"  I  remain,  Sir, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 
«W.  B.  JARVIS, 

"  Formerly  a  Captain  in  the  Queen's  Rangers  and  Ex 
Sheriff." 

Let  me  now  make  a  few  remarks,  suggested  by  the 
speech  my  opponent  has  given  you  to-night.  He  has 
given  us  a  rehash  of  that  long  historical  story,  which 
he  went  over  on  the  first  evening  of  the  debate,  about 
the  existence  of  slavery  from  the  first  ages  until  the 
present  time.  I  replied  to  him  on  the  evening  when 
this  course  of  argument  was  first  offered ;  and  I  will 
only  give  in  substance  the  same  answer  to-night.  Is  a 
giant  wrong  any  the  less  a  wrong  because  its  locks  are 
gray  with  age  ?  Supposing  it  to  have  existed  through 
all  ages,  does  that  fact  change  the  blackness  of  its  in 
famy  to  the  whiteness  of  innocence  ?  or  does  it  not 
rather  deepen  its  dark  stains  of  damning  guilt  before 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  239 

the  moral  sense  of  the  whole  world?  Does  it  make 
murder  right  because  it  began  with  Cain,  and  has  ex 
isted  from  that  day  to  this  ?  So  slavery  (even  admit 
ting  that  it  has  existed  in  all  ages  and  all  nations)  has 
existed  as  an  outrage  upon  man,  and  gains  no  sanction 
of  justice  because  it  began  its  atrocities  almost  with  the 
creation  of  the  human  race. 

It  has  been  urged  on  the  other  side  that  Africa  has 
been  blessed  by  slavery,  or  rather,  that  Africa  is  such 
a  horrid  place  that  it  is  a  blessing  to  the  slave  to  bring 
him  here.  Let  me  tell  the  gentleman  what  made  the 
coast  of  Africa  so  desolate,  and  what  has  contributed 
so  much  to  the  ruin  of  the  people  along  the  coast. 
They  were  as  happy  and  contented  as  are  those  in  the 
interior,  until  the  slave-traders  of  the  civilized  world 
came  to  them  with  the  vices  of  the  slaveholders  of  the 
South,  dealing  out  whiskey  among  them ;  inciting  the 
tribes  to  war  one  with  the  other ;  scattering  the  fire 
brands  of  destruction  among  them ;  exciting  them,  by 
appeals  to  their  cupidity,  to  conquer  their  fellows  and 
sell  them  into  slavery.  That  dark,  deep  heathenism, 
which  is  to  be  found  on  the  coasts  of  Africa,  has 
gathered  the  blackest  tinge  of  its  enormity  from  the 
slave-trade,  and  from  the  efforts  of  the  South  and  other 
portions  of  the  world,  to  gain  slaves  from  that  region. 

Read  the  travels  of  Dr.  Livingston.  Has  he  not 
found  in  the  interior  of  Africa  a  people  who,  not  having 
been  cursed  by  this  horrid  trade,  are  far  advanced  in 
enlightenment,  and  farther  advanced  in  humanity  than 
a  great  many  professed  Christians  of  America.  They 
have  built  large  towns,  have  rich  agricultural  districts, 
and  are  in  a  position  to  command  the  respect  of  the 


240  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

world  as  mucli  as  any  nation  destitute  of  the  blessings 
of  Christianity. 

Admitting  that  the  condition  of  Africa  is  bad  enough, 
how  is  it  bettered  by  slavery  and  the  slave-trade? 
Is  it  not  rather  injured,  depressed,  made  infinitely  worse 
by  the  continued  existence  of  American  slavery? 

The  Bible  argument  has  again  to-night  been  touched 
on.  I  shall  not  weary  you  by  a  textual  argument,  but 
permit  me  to  offer  a  few  reflections  founded  on  the 
genius  and  spirit  of  true  Christianity,  shedding  the 
light  of  its  glorious  principles  upon  this  dark  subject. 

Christianity  sustains  slavery — does  it  ?  Jesus  came 
among  us  to  hang  the  world  in  chains  —  did  he  ?  The 
law  that  he  proclaims  justifies  robbing  mothers  of  their 
children  and  wives  of  their  husbands- — does  it  ?  What 
is  the  language  of  that  law  ?  The  whole  sum  of  Chris 
tianity  is  thus  condensed  into  a  few  sentences : 

"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy 
strength;"  and  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.'' 

And  when  the  commentary  on  this  passage  is  given 
in  the  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  we  learn  that  our 
neighbor  is  he  who  is  in  distress,  who  has  fallen  among 
thieves.  In  short,  our  neighbor  is  the  slave,  who  has 
fallen  among  the  thieves  of  this  nation. 

The  very  genius  of  the  command  I  have  quoted 
requires  that  we  should  act  the  part  of  the  Good  Sama 
ritan  towards  the  slave — should  see  that  his  wounds  be 
bound  up,  and  that  he  be  protected  in  his  rights  against 
the  thieves  that  would  despoil  him. 

Do  you  ask  me  to  believe  for  an  instant  that  Jesus, 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  241 

as  he  looks  down  from  heaven  to-night  over  the  broad 
expanse  of  the  South  —  as  His  ear  catches  the  piteous 
cry  of  the  babe  bereft  of  a  mother's  care,  because  that 
mother  is  under  the  lash — as  He  hears  the  deep  groan 
of  the  poor  slave  who,  on  his  hard  couch  is  mourning 
the  bitterness  of  oppression  —  as  He  listens  to  the 
shrieks  of  maidens,  writhing  under  the  whip,  because 
they  will  not  submit  to  lust, — do  you  ask  me  to  believe 
that  our  glorious  Saviour,  as  His  view  takes  in  this 
whole  horrid  scene  of  brutality,  and  outrage,  and  cruelty, 
is  not  only  indifferent  to  its  horrors,  but  even  throws 
the  shield  of  the  Divine  sanction  over  a  hell  on  the  face 
of  God's  earth. 

If  you  ask  me  to  believe  this,  you  ask  me  to  cease  to 
be  a  Christian,  and  turn  infidel !  You  ask  me  to  change 
names  between  God  and  the  devil ;  for  Satan  himself, 
if  there  is  left  in  his  dark  heart  one  particle  of  sus 
ceptibility  to  good  and  true  emotion,  cannot  be  indifferent 
to  the  wrongs  of  the  slave.  Yet  I  am  told  here  in  pious 
phrase,  backed  up  with  canting  quotations  from  hymns, 
that  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  which  Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world  to  teach,  sanctions,  and  shields,  and 
throws  its  halo  around  American  slavery ! 

Infidelity,  indeed  !  Why,  if  the  alternative  is  to  be 
either  to  accept  a  religion  of  this  kind  or  to  sink  into 
blank  infidelity,  who  wonders  that  infidelity  makes  pro 
gress  in  the  world  ?  Who  wonders  that  men  of  mind 
and  heart  should  refuse  to  swallow  a  religion  which 
demands  that  they  shall  accept  the  American  slave- 
system  as  impregnably  holy  ? 

No,  gentlemen ;  as  an  humble  servant  of  God,  I  feel 
proud  to  do  what  I  may  to  shield  his  glorious  character 
21 


242  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

from  the  imputation  of  being  an  abettor  of  man  thieves. 
I  am  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  proclaiming  here 
that  the  blackest  blasphemy  ever  uttered  by  the  lips  of 
man  is  the  declaration  that  God  sanctions  American 
slavery. 

On  such  a  question  as  this,  I  cannot  stop  to  bandy 
texts.  Slavery  is  an  attack  broadly  levelled  at  the  very 
intuitions  of  our  common  consciousness.  The  great 
principle  of  freedom  is  so  clearly  mirrored  in  the 
depths  of  the  human  soul,  that  there  is  no  need  for  me 
to  cite  Bible  texts  and  historical  incidents,  or  enter 
into  a  minute  examination  of  the  question  of  races. 
Even  the  brutes  of  the  field  know  that  the  ethics  of 
American  slavery  are  false.  The  horse  can  detect  in 
a  moment  the  presence  of  humanity;  he  knows  the 
difference  between  a  creature  possessing  a  soul,  and  a 
piece  of  furniture  —  "goods  and  chattels  personal." 
Yet  the  religion,  the  ethics,  the  politics  of  the  South, 
and,  I  regret  to  say,  of  a  portion  of  the  North,  have 
not  yet  attained  to  the  perceptions  of  the  horse ! 

In  my  view,  it  does  not  need  philosophy,  it  does  not 
need  learning,  it  does  not  need  quotations  from  the 
Bible,  or  from  any  other  source,  to  settle  a  question  so 
plain  as  this.  The  simple  fact  that  God  has  given  each 
man  into  his  own  hands  —  that  He  has  stamped  His 
own  image  on  his  brow  —  that  He  has  given  him  the 
consciousness  of  his  own  individuality — that  He  has  be 
stowed  on  him  the  power  to  think,  to  will,  to  act,  and  the 
desire  to  take  care  of  himself — this  is  God's  own  testi 
mony,  written  upon  the  very  foundations  of  human 
nature,  declaring  that  man  is  entitled  to  liberty,  that 
freedom  is  his  birthright,  and  that  whoever  lays  hands 


BY    ABEAM    PRYNE.  243 

upon  him  to  prevent  its  enjoyment,  is  violating  the 
commands  of  the  Spirit  of  God  himself. 

This  is  a  question  which  it  seems  to  me  affords  but 
little  ground  for  argument.  It  is  not  more  argument 
that  the  world  wants  to  be  convinced  of  the  iniquity 
of  American  slavery  —  it  is  more  henrt  to  feel  for 
humanity.  The  difficulty  is  not  a  want  of  intellect, 
of  learning,  of  historical  research,  of  knowledge  in 
regard  to  the  races,  but  it  is  a  want  of  soul  to  appreciate 
the  dignity,  and  beauty,  and  glory  of  humanity  —  to 
understand  the  sacredness  of  that  type  of  God  which 
he  has  vouchsafed  to  us  in  each  other's  form  —  to  feel 
the  influence  of  the  great  law  of  human  brotherhood. 
We  have  been  told  that  American  slavery  will  not  be 
abolished  until  the  judgment  day.  Let  me  say  that  the 
man  holding  such  an  opinion,  but  little  knows  the  spirit 
of  the  age.  Put  your  ear  to  the  ground,  my  friend, 
and  you  will  hear  the  low,  muttering,  rolling  swell  of 
the  on-c.oming  wave  of  humanity  and  intelligence,  that 
shall  ere  long  sweep  from  the  earth  every  vestige  of 
this  horrid  system.  Understand  the  spirit  of  the  age 
— the  impulses  of  human  progress,  and  the  enlargement 
of  human  sympathies ;  catch  something  of  the  spirit 
which  rises  up  among  our  Northern  hills,  and  finds  its 
manifestation  throughout  Northern  society ;  and  then 
you  will  come  up  to  the  faith  that  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  every  slave  on  this  continent  shall  be  set 
free. 

The  whole  land  has  within  a  few  days  been  in  a  jubi 
lant  state  of  excitement,  because  of  the  successful  lay 
ing  of  the  great  Atlantic  Cable.  The  world  is  becoming 
a  net-work  for  the  communication  of  intelligence  that 


244  NEGATIVE,    IV. 

shall  thrill  along  the  nerves  of  the  electric  wire  from 
America  to  Europe,  and  make  the  circuit  of  the  globe. 
In  this  enlightened  day,  great  thoughts,  great  impulses, 
and  great  aims  cannot  be  restrained ;  and  the  spirit  of 
American  slavery  can  no  more  defend  itself  success 
fully  against  them  than  prevent  the  plunge  of  Niagara 
over  the  fall.  The  time  is  hastening  on,  when  by 
virtue  of  the  enlarging  impulses  and  vigorous  growth 
of  the  human  soul,  American  slavery  shall  be  abolished. 

Look  back  even  for  a  few  years.  In  your  own  city, 
not  very  long  ago,  such  thoughts  as  I  have  uttered 
would  have  been  received  with  showers  of  brickbats 
and  rotten  eggs.  It  was  then  as  much  as  a  man's  life 
was  worth  to  testify  to  the  truth.  I  come  into  the 
Anti-Slavery  enterprise  at  too  late  a  day  to  understand 
the  full  force  and  beauty  of  this  martyr  spirit.  The 
men  who  in  those  days  stood  true  to  the  glorious  cause, 
who  lifted  up  the  banner  of  righteousness,  and  mar 
shalled  the  better  heart  of  the  nation  to  see  the  wrongs 
of  the  oppressed — these  men  deserve  to  be  embalmed 
in  the  memory  of  future  generations ;  the  gratitude 
and  love  of  the  world  should  settle  down  upon  them  in 
one  benediction. 

What !  stop  the  impulses  of  humanity,  and  prevent 
the  abolition  of  American  slavery !  A  great  idea 
never  stops  ;  a  glorious  human  impulse  never  belittles 
itself,  and  immortality  speaks  out  in  the  birth  of  every 
noble  thought.  The  intuitions  of  humanity,  ever  gain 
ing  breadth  and  strength,  go  onward  and  inward ;  and 
truth,  proving  that 

"  The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers/' 
moves  forward  in  strength  and  power  to  final  triumph. 


BY   ABRAM   PRYNE.  245 

I  have  no  fears  for  the  success  of  this  enterprise  — 
no  doubts  that  the  slave  will  be  set  free — no  dread  that 
the  jubilee  will  not  come,  for  the  hearts  of  this  mighty 
nation  have  caught  the  impulse  of  freedom,  and  you 
can  never  turn  back  the  tide.  I  have  only  to  say, 
that  if  in  this  debate  I  shall  aid  in  the  humblest  way 
in  giving  impetus  to  the  glorious  cause,  I  shall  feel 
richly  repaid,  and  shall  rejoice  to  the  last  day  of  my 
life  in  having  had  the  proud  privilege  to  strike  one 
blow  for  God  and  man  ! 


21* 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 
AFFIRMATIVE,  V. — BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

GENTLEMEN,  having  concluded  my  remarks  last 
evening  fifteen  minutes  inside  of  my  time,  I  may  exceed 
my  limits  to-night  a  few  minutes,  but  it  shall  be  very 
few. 

There  is  nothing  more  common  in  this  age  of  polemic 
warfare,  than  for  every  combatant  who  assails  the 
motives,  calling,  doctrines,  or,  if  you  please,  the  cha 
racter  of  another,  to  claim  the  right  to  do  so,  because 
(as  he  says)  he  acts  on  the  defensive.  The  reason  of 
this  must  be  obvious  to  every  reflecting  mind.  He 
who  acts  in  the  defensive  is  entitled  to  the  sympathies 
of  the  public,  because  he  is  supposed  to  have  been  un 
justly  assailed ;  and  these  sympathies  will  justify  the 
defender,  while  the  aggressor  would  justly  deserve  the 
opprobrium  of  the  intelligent,  and  the  frowns  of  the 
candid.  But,  as  both  the  advocates  and  opponents  of 
the  South  claim  to  occupy  this  ground,  it  is  of  the  ut 
most  importance  that  this  controversy  should  be  settled, 
and  that  the  candid  and  conservative  men,  both  North 
and  South,  should  be  at  once  enabled  to  decide  to  whom 
this  high  claim  belongs.  It  seldom  occurs,  in  a  family 
or  neighborhood  quarrel,  a  Church  controversy,  or  a 
dispute  between  nations,  or  even  sections  of  the  same 
nation,  that  both  of  the  parties  to  the  dispute  are 

(240) 


AFFIRMATIVE,  V. — BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW.    247 

acting  on  the  defensive.  Some  one  commenced  the 
war;  some  one  is  the  aggressor ;  some  one  is  to  blame 
more  than  another  for  the  existence  of  said  quarrel,  or 
controversy.  So  it  is  in  the  present  controversy 
which  divides,  distracts,  and  agitates  this  great  Nation, 
from  the  cod-fisheries  of  Maine,  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  growing  out  of  the  slavery  question.  Who  is 
at  fault,  the  North  or  South?  It  is  my  purpose  in 
this,  my  last  of  this  series  of  addresses,  to  set  forth 
who  is  at  fault. 

To  defend  one's  self,  presupposes  an  unwarranted 
attack  from  another  —  not  merely  an  attack,  but  one 
for  which  there  was  no  just  cause.  I  may  attack  an 
enemy  of  mine  —  a  sworn  and  uncompromising  foe  — 
with  all  the  violence  of  which  my  nature  is  capable, 
and  still  I  may  act  on  the  defensive,  if  the  previous 
conduct  of  that  enemy,  including  his  threats  of  per 
sonal  violence,  were  such  as  to  render  my  assault  ne 
cessary  to  my  future  safety.  You,  gentlemen,  any  of 
you,  may  attack  an  enemy  in  like  manner,  and  still  act 
on  the  defensive,  if  the  previous  threats  of  that  enemy 
were  such,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  as  to  make  that 
attack  necessary  to  your  future  well-being.  Nay,  it  is 
a  principle  in  municipal  law,  both  in  this  country  and 
in  England,  that  if  an  evil-disposed  person  threaten 
your  life  upon  sight,  you  are  justified  in  shooting  him 
down  upon  sight.  This  was  the  principle  acted  upon 
by  the  gallant  PUTNAM,  when  he  assailed  the  wolf  in 
his  den.  Putnam  made  the  attack,  but  it  was  in  self- 
defence.  The  howlings  and  prowlings  of  the  "  var 
mint"  in  the  neighborhood,  to  say  nothing  of  his  de 
predations  among  the  live  stock  of  the  farmers,  could 


248  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

no  longer  be  tolerated.  The  vile  wolves,  attired  in 
"sheep's  clothing"  in  Abolitiondom,  upon  whom 
Southern  farmers  are  visiting  a  righteous  retribution, 
have  howled  about  the  borders  of  the  Slave  States  long 
enough.  They  have  prompted  insubordination  among 
our  domestics ;  they  have  stolen  others,  and  run  them 
off  upon  an  under-ground  railroad ;  and  they  have  re 
sisted  laws  passed  by  Congress  to  restore  to  us  our 
property.  When  we  declared  the  War  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  we  were  acting  on  the  defensive.  We  declared 
the  war,  but  we  did  it  in  self-defence.  In  the  language 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Great  Britain 
"kept  among  us,  in  time  of  peace,  standing  armies, 
without  the  consent  of  our  Legislatures,"  &c.,  &c. 

Now,  fellow-countrymen,  how  stands  the  case  as 
between  the  Anti-Slavery  men  of  the  North,  and  the 
Pro-Slavery  men  of  the  South?  Who  commenced  the 
"war  of  words  and  fight  of  quills,"  that  has  raged 
between  the  opposing  sections  of  North  and  South, 
for  lo  !  a  quarter  of  a  century  past  ?  Who  has  kept  up 
the  strife,  and  added  fuel  to  the  flame  ?  In  the 
language  of  the  time-honored  instrument  already 
quoted,  "\zifacts  be  submitted  to  a  candid  world." 

The  Anti-Slavery  men  of  the  North,  have  persever- 
ingly  refused  us  the  exercise  of  those  rights  the  Bible, 
the  Constitution,  and  laws  of  our  country  guarantee 
to  us,  and  to  our  children.  Act  iv.  sec.  2,  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  declares  that,  — 
"No  person  held  to  labor  or  service  in  one  State,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  con 
sequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  labor  or  service,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  249 

claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may 
be  due."  But  this  preacher  of  Abolition  "righteous 
ness,"  has  avowed  upon  this  stand,  that  he  intends  to 
stump  the  State  of  New  York  in  favor  of  G-erritt  Smith 
for  governor,  because  he  is  pledged  to  call  out  the 
militia  of  that  State,  when  any  attempt  is  made  to 
arrest  a  fugitive  slave.  The  gentleman  is  said  to  own 
stock  in  the  under-ground  railroad,  and  to  be  associated 
with  his  colored  superiors,  Douglass  and  Ward,  and 
other  negro-stealers  of  Syracuse.  This  will  account 
for  his  zeal  in  this  infamous  cause. 

Now,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  is  based  on  the  fore 
going  clause  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  the 
highest  judicial  tribunal  known  to  this  government,  has 
declared  this  Fugitive  Slave  Law  to  be  constitutional. 
Yet,  Anti-Slavery  men  at  the  North  resist  this  law, 
and  thereby  rebel  against  the  Constitution  and  civil 
authorities  of  the  country. 

Four  years  after  the  declaration  of  American  Inde 
pendence,  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts  emancipated 
their  slaves;  and,  eight  years  thereafter,  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  followed  their  example. 

Three  years  after  the  last-named  event,  an  Abolition 
Society  was  organized  by  the  citizens  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  with  JOHN  JAY  at  its  head.  Two  years 
subsequently,  the  Pennsylvanians  did  the  same  thing, 
electing  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  to  the  Presidency  of 
their  association  —  he  declining  to  serve!  Thirty-eight 
years  after  Pennsylvania  struck  off  the  shackles  from  her 
slaves,  one-third  of  the  convicts  in  her  Penitentiary 
were  free  negroes ;  and  one-half  of  New  Jersey's  con- 


250  AFFIRMATIVE,     V. 

victs  were  free  persons  of  color.  Am  I  called  upon  for 
the  proof  in  these  cases,  I  cite  the  "Boston  Prison 
Discipline  Society's  Report,"  for  1826-7. 

The  records  in  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and 
Rhode  Island,  did  not  show  such  a  proportion  of 
colored  convicts,  and  for  the  best  of  reasons.  The 
negroes  were  not  there.  Before  the  laws  emancipating 
them  could  take  effect,  the  pious  Abolitionists  hurried 
them  round  to  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas,  and  sold 
them  for  the  cash. 

Thus  are  we  of  the  South  on  the  defensive  in  this 
controversy.  And  against  whom  do  we  wage  war? 
It  is  against  the  sanctimonious  hypocrisy  of  a  band 
that,  with  words  of  pity  on  the  lips,  with  wailing  in 
the  tone,  with  woe  upon  the  visage,  and  bigotry  where 
the  heart  should  have  been,  continue  to  agitate  this 
question  as  they  have  been  doing  for  years,  both  in 
and  out  of  Congress. 

The  question  really  is,  whether  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  the  provisions  of  our  National  Constitution,  and 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  on  the  one  hand, 
or  the  dictation  of  demagogues,  on  the  other,  shall  rule 
the  destinies  of  the  South,  and  of  the  Union.  Hence, 
our  stand  is  taken,  and  our  purposes  immovably  fixed. 
We  Jiave  a  right  to  peace  under  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitution,  the  acts  of  Congress,  and  the  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court ;  and  we  desire  peace ;  but  we 
see  no  prospect  of  quiet,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  of 
everlasting  agitation  ! 

I  need  not  here  pause  to  speak  of  the  threats  these 
agitators  have  uttered,  respecting  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  One  of  the  file-leaders, 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW  251 

who  represents  the  party,  SENATOR  SEWARD,  said  at  a 
mass-meeting  in  Ohio,  only  two  years  ago : 

"  Slavery  can  be  limited  to  its  present  bounds;  it  can  be 
ameliorated.  It  can  be  —  and  it  must  be  —  ABOLISHED,  and 
you  and  I  can  and  must  do  it." 

Only  a  few  months  since,  Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio, 
declared  that  the  North  was  the  lord  and  master  of  the 
South ;  that  the  South  would  be  compelled  to  obey  her 
lord  and  master,  whether  so  inclined  or  not.  Senators 
Wilson,  Hale,  &c.,  followed  in  a  like  strain,  until  the 
victorious  jubilations  were  concluded.  Similar, scenes 
occurred  in  the  House  of  Representatives  very  often 
last  session;  and  from  these  blustering  threats,  this 
gentleman  defiantly  ventured  to  utter  his  boast  last 
evening,  of  a  similar  character.  In  his  fanatical  out 
bursts  of  wild  and  fierce  •  denunciation  of  the  South 
and  everything  Southern,  he  is  but  the  ecfio  of  such 
demagogues  and  incendiaries  as  I  have  named.  Nay, 
he  is  the  sattelite  of  Seward,  Smith,  &  Co.,  and  revolves 
around  them  as  his  primary  !  Their  cardinal  principles 
are  as  wicked,  as  revolutionary,  and  as  vile,  as  are 
those  of  the  Father  of  Evil ;  and  they  have  these 
unblushing,  unscrupulous,  and  unprincipled  clerical 
hacks,  and  others,  giving  out  their  hostilities  over  the 
country  ! 

And  those  who  counsel  resistance  to  the  laws  and 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic,  like  Mr.  Seward, 
the  people  of  the  South  will  hold  guilty  of  a  high  mis 
demeanor,  and  they  will  ever  treat  them  as  disturbers 
of  the  public  peace,  nay,  as  enemies  of  the  independ 
ence,  the  perpetuity,  the  greatness,  and  the  glory  of 


252  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

the  Union,  under  which,  by  the  blessing  of  Almighty 
God,  we  have  hitherto  so  wonderfully  prospered  ! 

Buc  why  disturb  a  system  that  is  beneficial  to  the 
physical  and  moral  welfare  of  the  negroes  ?  Why 
remove  them  from  the  restraint  of  Christian  and  civil 
ized  life,  and  turn  them  back  to  savage  barbarism, 
penury,  want,  and  starvation,  merely  for  the  sake  of 
saying  they  are  free  ?  Of  what  advantage  is  freedom, 
if  men  are  not  competent  to  use  it,  to  their  own  and 
their  neighbors'  good  ?  Why  take  away  the  comfort 
they  now  enjoy,  and  turn  them  out  to  starve,  or  steal, 
or  to  be  destroyed  by  a  superior  race  ?  Why  all  this 
noise  about  freedom,  when  that  boasted  freedom  would 
bring  anarchy,  poverty,  suffering,  moral  and  physical 
desolation  to  the  negro  ?  Is  there  any  of  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  in  all  this  agitation  ?  The  examples 
of  the  French  Revolutionists,  and  the  acts  of  British 
emancipationists,  particularly  in  the  West  India  Islands, 
should  be  a  warning  to  all  American  Abolitionists  ! 

Negroes  in  a  state  of  slavery  are  comfortable  and 
prosperous  beyond  any  peasantry  in  the  world,  and 
even  beyond  the  most  opulent  serfs  of  Europe ;  but 
emancipate  them,  and  you  irretrievably  consign  them 
to  barbarism.  Emancipate  the  slaves  in  the  Southern 
States,  and  the  white  population  would  either  leave 
the  negroes  to  u  one  long  day  of  unprofitable  ease" — 
leave  them  to  dream  of  happiness,  or  their  abolition 
sympathizers  to  dream  for  them — or  they  would  require 
the  negroes  to  leave  the  country. 

Really,  the  only  way  to  civilize  and  Christianize 
benighted  Africa  is  to  annex  that  vast  continent  to  the 
United  States,  and  let  our  people  reduce  them  to 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  253 

slavery,  set  them  to  work,  and  thus  develop  the  resources 
of  Africa.  Their  lands  are  the  finest  in  the  world,  and 
adapted  to  the  culture  of  coffee,  above  all  other  lands. 
The  English,  French,  and  Spanish  people,  are  not  the 
people  to  own  and  direct  African  laborers — they  exer 
cise  too  much  cruelty.  God  looks  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  to  develop  the  resources  of  Africa,  and 
I  honestly  believe  he  requires  us  to  do  that  work.  Talk 
shout  filibustering,  and  the  unlawful  seizure  of  territory 
in  possession  of  others  !  The  Africans  have  forfeited 
their  country,  by  refusing  to  labor,  and  to  develop  its 
resources.  Men  must  labor.  If  they  will  not  do  so 
of  their  own  choice,  they  must  be  compelled  to  do  so, 
or  starve.  The  negro  will  not  work  without  some  one 
to  make  him  do  so.  Man  is  doomed  to  eat  bread  in 
the  sweat  of  his  face.  This  he  cannot  reverse.  He 
may  dream  of  ease  without  labor,  but,  while  he  dreams, 
the  laws  of  nature,  all  against  him,  are  sternly  at  their 
work.  Indolence  benumbs  the  feeble  intellect  of  the 
negro,  and  inflames  his  vile  passions,  driving  him  into 
the  extremes  of  savage  barbarism.  Indolence  brings 
upon  the  negro,  poverty  and  want ;  it  surrounds  him 
with  temptation  ;  and  then,  vice,  with  all  her  long  train 
of  blighting  evils,  winds  her  deadly  coils  around  him, 
and  makes  him  the  willing  slave  of  the  Devil,  to  do  his 
will  upon  a  scale  of  savage  barbarity,  revolting  to  the 
finer  feelings  of  the  soul !  He  dreams  of  peace  and 
liberty,  without  labor,  but  he  reaps  a  harvest  of  star 
vation,  poverty,  disease,  and  death.  The  blossoms  of 
his  paradise  are  fine  words  spoken  by  Abolitionists,  but 
its  fruits  are  death.  Like  the  fabled  apple  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  beautiful  without,  but  ashes  within ! 
I  repeat,  there  is  no  call  for  the  re-opening  of  the 
22 


254  AFFIRMATIVE,   V. 

African  slave-trade  among  us :  a  sufficient  stock  of 
negroes  are  in  our  Southern  States,  to  answer  our  ends, 
as  Well  as  the  ends  of  Providence,  which,  shocking  as 
the  sentiment  may  be  to  your  ears,  are  in  perfect 
harmony  !  Hamitic  service  is  now  a  blessing  to  these 
United  States,  and  it  is  a  blessing  to  the  slaves  in 
bondage,  though  the  mode  of  its  transplantation  was 
an  abomination  ! 

In  future,  then,  the  theatre  for  the  achievement  of 
the  happiness  of  the  African  race,  is  not  the  United 
States — it  is  Africa.  Utopia  is  not  the  field — it  must 
be  abandoned.  Let  us  seize  upon  the  vast  territory 
of  Africa,  cultivate  its  rich  soil,  and  force  its  millions 
of  indolent,  degraded,  and  starving  natives,  to  labor, 
and  thereby  elevate  themselves  to  the  dignity  of  men 
made  in  the  image  of  God !  Christian  men  at  the 
South,  who  take  a  correct  view  of  this  question  of 
slavery,  will  no  longer  make  provisions  in  their  wills, 
or  otherwise,  for  the  emancipation  of  their  negroes, 
and  cast  them  helpless,  upon  the  frigid  charities  of  the 
Anti-Slavery  men  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  the 
New  England  States.  Let  them  sell  their  slaves  to 
Southern  planters  here,  and  direct  the  proceeds  to  be 
applied  to  the  opening  up  of  new  slave  States  in  Africa, 
where  we  may  settle  down,  and  compel  the  natives  to 
labor,  thus  causing  civilization  and  Christianity  to 
spread  over  a  few  millions  of  its  population,  and  the 
moral  effect  would  be  irresistible  ! 

What  next  ?  According  to  the  doctrines  advanced 
here,  by  my  not  very  worthy  competitor,  "Abolition" 
is  the  Christian's  mission  in  this  our  day  and  genera 
tion,  and  it  is  his  ONLY  mission !  It  again  becomes 
necessary  for  me  to  recall  the  fact,  that  slavery  of  the 


BY    W.     G       BROWNLOW.  255 

worst  sort  existed  throughout  the  Roman  Empire  in  our 
Saviour's  day,  and  in  the  days  of  his  immediate  succes 
sors  in  office — and  that  neither  Christ  nor  his  Apostles 
ever  were  known  to  preach  an  "  Abolition"  sermon, 
deliver  an  " Abolition"  lecture,  or  offer  up  an  "Abo 
lition"  prayer ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  everywhere  taught, 
"servants  obey  your  masters."  I  do  not  mean  to  say, 
that  Christ  was  passionately  fond  of  slavery,  or  made 
a  business  of  defending  Roman  slavery,  which  was  more 
cruel  and  barbarous  than  American  slavery,  for  I  have 
no  express  declarations  of  Holy  Writ  to  bear  me  out  in 
saying  so ;  but,  perhaps,  I  have  good  ground  to  say  the 
very  reverse.  But  I  do  mean  to  say,  that  Christianity, 
in  the  days  of  Christ,  consisted  in  rendering  unto 
Csesar  the  things  that  were  Caesar's,  and  in  letting  civil 
and  servile  institutions  alone. 

When  Christ  was  on  earth,  He  rebuked  sin  of  all 
classes  and  kinds,  and  dared  to  rebuke  the  haughty 
Jewish  priests  in  their  temple,  where  they  were  guilty 
of  sin ;  but,  while  slavery,  cruel  Roman  slavery  was 
all  about  Him,  and  He  was  daily  in  the  midst  of  it, 
neither  He  nor  his  Apostles  were  ever  known  to  preach 
an  "Abolition"  sermon.  The  slavery  Christ  saw  daily 
was  that  under  which  a  master  could  sell  his  slave, 
work  him  as  many  hours  as  he  pleased  in  twenty-four, 
or  PUT  HIM  TO  DEATH  if  he  thought  proper  to  do  so. 
Yet,  Christ  never  preached  a  sermon  in  favor  of  abol 
ishing  even  this  kind  of  slavery ! 

A  Roman  slave  could  not  contract  a  marriage ;  and 
if  he  had  children,  with  or  without  marriage,  no  legal 
relation  between  him  and  his  children  was  recognized. 
A  free  woman  having  children  by  a  slave,  was  at  once 
reduced  to  bondage  as  a  punishment  for  the  offence. 


256  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

By  way  of  parenthesis  I  take  occasion  to  say,  that  the 
Boston  matrimonial  register  shows,  that  during  the  past 
year  of  our  Lord,  1857,  there  were  no  less  than  sixty 
amalgamation  marriages  ;  and,  singular  to  say,  they 
were  all  white  women  to  gentlemen  of  color,  mostly 
fugitives  from  the  Slave  States.  The  white  ladies  of 
Boston  have  singular  tastes,  and  can  but  feel  proud 
that  they  are  not  living  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  the 
Apostles,  who  endorsed  a  law  that  would  have  made 
them  slaves  !  I  name  this  fact  upon  the  authority  of 
the  New  York  Dispatch,  to  show  the  growing  degene 
racy  of  New  England.  When  WOMAN,  the  safeguard 
of  virtue  and  purity,  stoops  thus  to  degrade  herself, 
the  degradation  of  man,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
must  follow. 

What  next  ?  Under  the  laws  regulating  the  slavery 
Christ  tolerated,  a  slave  could  have  no  property.  A 
runaway  slave  could  not  be  lawfully  received  or  harbored 
by  a  second  or  third  person ;  to  conceal  him  was  death. 
The  master  was  entitled  to  pursue  him  wherever  he 
pleased,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  all  authorities  to  give 
him  "  aid  and  comfort"  in  his  efforts  to  recover  the 
fugitive.  Persons  became  slaves  by  capture  in  war, 
without  any  regard  to  rank,  color,  or  sex.  And  yet, 
these  were  the  laws  that  Christ  and  the  Apostles  ex 
horted  Christians  to  reverence  and  obey ;  and  this  was 
the  slavery  against  which  they  obstinately  refused  to 
preach  a  single  sermon  ! 

The  immense  number  of  prisoners  captured  in  the 
constant  wars  of  the  Roman  Republic,  and  the  increase 
of  wealth  and  luxury  in  the  days  of  Christ,  augmented 
the  number  of  slaves  to  a  prodigious  extent.  Roman 
citizens,  not  a  few,  owned  as  many  as  10,000  and 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  257 

20,000  slaves.  A  freed  man,  under  Augustus,  after 
losing  much  property  and  many  slaves  in  the  civil 
wars,  at  his  death  disposed  of  4116  slaves !  The 
games  of  the  amphitheatre  required  an  immense  num 
ber  of  slaves.  The  gladiators  in  Italy,  only  73  years 
before  Christ,  were  not  defeated  by  the  Romans  till 
60,000  slaves  were  slain  in  battle.  Regular  slave- 
dealers  accompanied  the  different  contending  armies, 
and,  after  a  battle  had  been  gained,  the  successful  party 
threw  thousands  into  the  market,  and  sold  them  at  very 
cheap  rates. 

In  the  midst  of  this  system  of  slavery  the  Christian 
era  was  inaugurated.  Christ  came  in  contact  with  it 
every  day,  recognized  it  as  proper,  preached  sermons 
in  which  he  urged  obedience  to  these  slave  laws,  and 
obedience  to  masters  by  slaves,  but  never  delivered 
the  first  sermon  in  favor  of  the  "  Abolition  "  of  slavery  ! 
Christians  owned  slaves,  and  both  bought  and  sold 
them,  under  the  very  noses  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  ; 
and  they,  in  turn,  sanctioned  the  traffic,  by  receiving 
both  the  slaves  and  their  owners  into  the  Church,  and 
administering  its  ordinances  to  them.  What  I  mean 
to  infer  from  these  facts  is,  that  if  slavery  were  the 
sin  and  crime  the  Abolitionists  of  this  day  say  it  is, 
Christ  saw  it  in  a  worse  point  of  view,  and  never 
preached  a  sermon  against  it;  never  warred  upon  the 
government  that  protected  it  by  law ;  but,  on  the  con> 
trary,  taught  obedience  to  that  government,  and  reve 
rence  for  its  civil  and  domestic  institutions.  His  mis 
sion  was  to  call  sinners  to  repentance — not^fco  concen 
trate  the  public  mind  upon  the  abolition  of  slavery,  nor 

to   divide   churches,  and   distract   society  upon   that 

22* 


258  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

question,  as  do  the  hypocrites  and  demagogues  of  New 
England ! 

I  would  like  to  impress  upon  my  brother  preachers 
of  the  North  the  example  of  Christ  when  on  earth,  in 
the  midst  of  Roman  slavery  —  in  itself  almost  indefen 
sible,  because  of  its  atrocities ;  I  could  then  make  them 
useful  in  ameliorating  and  Christianizing  African  slavery 
in  the  United  States.  If  Northern  Anti-Slavery  men 
would  only  reason  with,  instead  of  cursing  and  villify- 
ing  the  people  of  the  South,  some  practical  good  to  the 
slave,  his  owner,  and  the  country  generally,  as  well  as 
to  the  Church,  might  be  accomplished ;  but  their  SLAN 
DER  and  ABUSE,  and  their  OFFICIOUS  INTERMEDDLINGS, 
have  drawn  tighter  the  bonds  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States,  and  caused  the  slaves  to  be  treated  with  more 
severity  than  they  otherwise  would  have  been. 

What  next  ?  Let  us  consider,  briefly,  some  of  the 
effects  of  this  crusade  against  the  South.  The  princi 
pal  watering-places  at  the  North  have  not  met  with 
their  usual  success  during  the  two  or  three  seasons  last 
past,  —  while  those  of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
Georgia,  North  Carolina,  and  Alabama,  have  been 
overrun.  Heretofore,  Saratoga,  Newport,  and  Cape 
May,  have  been  the  grand  centres  of  attraction  for  the 
fashionable  society  of  every  section  of  the  Union.  At 
these,  and  other  points,  the  wealth  and  fashion  of  the 
South  have  assembled  in  crowds,  filling  their  vast  ho 
tels  to  repletion,  while  gold  from  the  South,  the  pro 
duct  of  slave  labor,  wTas  poured  out  with  a  most  lavish 
hand,  such  as  the  liberality  and  elegance  of  Southern 
people  alone,  could  do  !  My  information  is,  that  the 
hotels  at  these  celebrated  watering-places,  the  two  past 
seasons,  were  but  half  filled,  and  scarcely  a  Southern 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  259 

family  was  in  attendance  at  any  of  them.  Southern 
gentlemen  DOW  in  this  city,  will  attest  the  truth  of  these 
sayings. 

May  we  not  pause  here,  and  inquire  into  the  cause 
of  this  sudden,  and  almost  general  desertion  ?  No  one 
can  be  mistaken  as  to  the  cause.  The  South  has  been, 
for  years,  reviled  and  insulted  by  Northern  Abolition 
ists,  and  their  vile  presses.  No  terms  of  reproach 
were  low  enough  to  apply  to  us  —  negro-drivers,  slave- 
killers,  heartless-murderers,  outside  barbarians,  and 
every  vile  epithet  that  could  be  coined,  was  heaped 
upon  the  heads  of  the  Southern  people,  without  dis 
tinction  of  age  or  sex.  The  very  elite  of  the  South, 
including  the  most  refined  and  virtuous  females,  have 
been  grossly  insulted  at  the  tables  of  these  Northern 
hotels,  by  insolent  free  negroes,  acting  as  waiters  and 
hired  servants.  Beside  all  this,  the  entire  North, 
where  these  watering-places  are  located,  in  the  late 
Presidential  contest,  voted  for  "  Fremont  and  Dayton ;" 
a  miserable  sectional  vote,  indirectly  given  for  a  disso 
lution  of  the  Union. 

Hence  it  is,  that  the  Southern  people,  heretofore 
the  wealthy  and  liberal  patrons  of  Northern  watering- 
places,  remain  at  home,  go  to  Europe,  or  visit  the  supe 
rior  springs  of  their  own  native  mountains. 

Nor  is  it  the  watering-places  alone,  that  have  been 
injuriously  affected  at  the  North ;  this  is  but  a  small 
item  in  their  losses  ;  many  of  the  manufacturing  towns 
at  the  North,  have  been  sadly  crippled  in  their  busi 
ness.  Boston,  the  hot-bed  of  sedition,  and  Abolition 
slang-whanging,  has  done  a  little  more  than  half  her 
usual  business  with  the  South,  the  two  last  seasons.  In 
the  meantime,  Boston  has  turned  her  attention  to  a 


260  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

new  set  of  Free-Soil  customers  in  the  North-west,  and 
these  failing  to  meet  their  liabilities  when  the  panic  set 
in  last  fall,  many  banks  and  business-houses  suspended, 
and  not  a  few  went  by  the  board  !  Such  are,  to  some 
extent,  at  least,  the  effects  of  this  Abolition  crusade 
against  the  South.  They  are  fast  destroying  their 
whole  trade  with  the  South,  in  their  pious  efforts  to 
steal  a  few  negroes,  and  to  set  others  free. 

These  Abolition  vagrants,  Kansas-sympathizing, 
Freedom-shrieking,  Union-hating  hypocrites,  have  gone 
out  to  shear,  and  returned  home  most  gloriously  shorn. 
And  this  decrease  in  business  will  continue  from  year 
to  year,  the  South  will  build  up  a  foreign  trade,  es 
tablish  Ocean  steamboat  lines  from  our  Atlantic  cities 
to  the  entry-ports  of  Europe,  and  thus  convey  our 
own  products  to  the  European  markets,  instead  of 
sending  them  North,  and  paying  a  double  commission 
for  their  transmission  abroad,  and  that,  too,  to  our 
bitterest  revilers,  and  most  unmitigated  calumniators. 
Indeed,  the  South  can  do  nothing  less  than  to  withdraw 
from  all  entertainments  prepared  for  her  by  Northern 
fanatics. 

But  the  question  arises  in  this  connection.  What 
are  the  capabilities  and  resources  of  the  South  ?  Upon 
this  point  I  desire  to  be  heard  with  attention.  We 
have  already  an  immense  line  of  railroad,  and  an 
equally  extensive  line  of  steamboats  in  successful  ope 
ration,  and  thousands  of  miles  more  projected.  We 
have  capacious  ports  and  harbors  strung  along  the 
Atlantic  coast,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  the  Chesa 
peake  and  Delaware  Bays,  including  Sounds  and  Rivers, 
to  head  of  tide,  amounting  to  23,803  miles,  and  more 
than  doubling  those  of  your  boasted  North!  Our 


BY   \Y      G .    BBOWNLOW. 


261 


inland  water  communications  are  unequalled.  Look  at 
the  following  tables,  and  tell  me,  does  the  South  lack 
facilities  for  commercial  intercourse? 

Table  showing  the  shore  line  of  States  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
and  Gulf  of  Mexico. 


* 

£ 

j 

O 

•3=3 

•0 

• 

o)  *& 

8 

•9 

1 

3 

1 

I 

O    C3    0 

STATUS. 

•8 

*f 

5i 

|f 

111 

§ 

a  S 

.S  'o 

g  8 

03             DO           ' 

*""*   tft* 

T3 

8  «r 

03     "*     O 

Id 

§1 

"3  c? 

3,0'p 

£" 

& 

GQ 

S 

H 

H 

Miles 

Miles. 

Miles. 

Miles. 

Miles. 

427 

1,599 

427 

2,026 

2,453 

•  N.  Hampshire 

Mass         .  .    . 

13 

209 

37 
865 

24 

832 

50 
1,074 

74 

1,906 

Rhode  Island. 
Connecticut... 
New  York...  . 
New  Jersey  .  . 
Pennsylvania 
Delaware  .... 
Maryland  .... 
Virginia  
N.  Carolina... 
S.  Carolina  ,  . 
Georgia  
Florida 

55 
14 
114 
118 

"29 
44 
148 
299 
192 
76 
1,020 

153 

239 
886 
702 

'ise 

1,008 
735 
1,549 
356 
410 
3,005 

232 
1,074 
1,057 
151 
106 
506 
3,401 
1,690 
932 
708 
468 
860 

208 
253 
1,000 
820 

1,052 

883 
1,848 
548 
486 
4,025 

440 
1,327 
2,057 
971 
106 
671 
4,453 
2,573 
2,780 
1,256 
954 
4,885 

Alabama  .... 

Mississippi-.  . 
Louisiana...  . 
Texas     ... 

33 
42 
616 
353 

284 
206 
1,595 
1,284 

313 
137 

936 
432 

317 

248 
2,211 
1,637 

630 
385 
3,147 
2,069 

Totals 

14,286 

18,851 

33,137 

Total  Northern 
Total  Southern 


9,334  miles. 

23,803 

33,137      " 


262  AFFIRMATIVE,   V. 

Number  of  harbors  in  the  different  States  on  the  coast,  and 
the  principal  ones  on  rivers  to  the  head  of  tide.  [7w- 
complete.~\ 

Number  of  harbors  (not  including 
States.  all  upon  rivers.) 

Maine 52 

New  Hampshire 3 

Massachusetts ,  51 

Rhode  Island 7 

Connecticut 32 

New  York 27 

New  Jersey , 14 

Pennsylvania 3 

—  189 

Delaware 3 

Maryland   11 

Virginia 22 

North  Carolina 52 

South  Carolina 21 

Georgia 15 

Florida 66 

Alabama 4 

Mississippi 10 

Louisiana 33 

Texas 12 

—  249 


Total 438 

The  table  of  harbors  is  incomplete,  but  the  full 
table  will  only  increase  the  number  of  those  of  the 
South,  and  show  her  still  greater  relative  superiority. 
With  railroads  and  rivers  ^raversing  every  portion  of 
her  territory ;  with  safe  and  ample  harbors  indenting 
her  coasts;  and  with  thousands  of  miles  of  her  shores 
washed  by  the  ocean,  what  does  the  South  lack  in  the 
way  of  facilities  for  transportation?  Nothing,  lite- 


BY    W.    Q.    BROWN  LOW.  263 

rally  nothing.  If,  then,  the  South  shall  be  forced  to 
establish  a  separate  and  independent  government,  by 
the  continued  aggressions  of  the  North,  would  her  geo 
graphical  position  shut  her  out  from  intercourse  with 
the  world?  No,  verily,  she  is  throughout  her  whole 
extent,  by  the  act  of  God,  in  contact  with  the  commer 
cial  world. 

Our  coal  and  iron,  copper,  lead,  zinc,  and  other 
valuable  minerals,  are  exhaustless;  and  the  produce 
of  an  empire  can  now  most  readily  be  entered  at  any 
port  in  the  South. 

But,  with  us  in  the  South,  "cotton  is  king;"  and, 
in  the  language  of  Professor  De  Bow: 

"  It  is  the  cotton-bale  that  makes  the  treaties  of  the  world, 
and  binds  over  the  nations  to  keep  the  peace/' 

Behind  the  cotton-bale,  in  time  of  war,  our  armies 
take  shelter;  while,  in  time  of  peace,  our  cotton-bales 
employ  the  shipping  of  at  least  half  the  American 
commerce;  feed  the  looms  and  spindles  of  the  entire 
North,  adding  all  the  wealth  and  opulence  enjoyed  by 
their  great  marts.  And  while  we  enjoy  the  right  of 
Hamitic  servitude,  guarantied  to  us  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  our  country,  and  by  the  Divine  laws  of  God, 
with  Our  superior  soil  and  genial  climate,  no  competi 
tion  on  earth  will  be  able  to  stand  before  us.  t  And 
these  rights  we  intend  to  enjoy,  or  to  a  man  we  will 
die,  strung  along  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  with  our 
faces  looking  North !)  Leave  us  in  the  peaceable  pos 
session  of  our  slaves,  and  our  Northern  neighbors  may 
have  all  the  paupers  and  convicts  that  pour  in  upon  us 
from  European  prisons,  the  getters-up  of  "hunger 


264  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

meetings"  at  the  North,  and  the  propagators  of  most 
of  the  irreligious  and  impious  isms  of  the  day ! 

The  productive  wealth  of  the  South,  her  agricultural 
and  mineral  resources,  her  population  and  extent  of 
territory,  are  greatly  underrated  by  the  politicians  of 
the  North,  and  the  reckless  agitators  of  the  slavery 
question,  such  as  this  gentleman ! 

There  are  NINE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-NINE  THOU 
SAND  SQUARE  MILES  of  territory  in  the  South — an  area 
as  large  as  that  covered  by  Great  Britain,  France, 
Austria,  Prussia,  and  Spain.  The  North,  even  after 
the  admission  of  the  two  large  Territories  of  Kansas 
and  Minnesota,  will  fall  MORE  THAN  ONE  HUNDRED 
THOUSAND  SQUARE  MILES  short  of  the  South.  This 
does  not  include  the  territory  lying  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  which  will  never  come  into  antagonism  with 
the  South. 

There  are  TWELVE  MILLIONS  or  INHABITANTS  in  the 
slaveholding  States  of  this  Union,  and  of  this  number 
FOUR  MILLIONS  are  slaves  ;  and  their  aggregate  value, 
at  present  prices,  will  amount  to  SEVENTEEN  HUNDRED 
MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS  !  This  item  of  Southern  wealth 
he  left  out  of  his  calculation !  This  gives  us  an  aggre 
gate  population  larger  than  that  of  Great  Britain  when 
she  struggled  against  NAPOLEON  and  the  combined 
armies  of  Europe !  The  population  of  the  slavehold 
ing  States  of  this  Confederacy  is  five  times  that  of 
the  United  Continental  Colonies;  it  is  three  times  that 
of  Sweden  and  Norway;  and  greater  than  that  of 
Belgium,  Portugal,  Holland,  Denmark,  Switzerland, 
and  Greece  combined !  We  have  a  population  five 
times  as  large  as  that  which  conquered  our  independ- 


BY   W  .    G  .    B  11  0  W  N  L  0  W  .  265 

ence,  and  a  thousand-fold  as  strong !  We  have  ONE 
MILLION  OF  MEN  upon  our  muster-rolls,  and  not  792,876, 
as  Mr.  Pryne  asserts  !  At  any  time,  upon  short  notice, 
the  South  can  raise,  equip,  and  maintain  in  the  field  a 
larger  force  than  any  power  on  earth  can  send  against 
her — men,  too,  brought  up  on  horseback,  and  in  active 
life,  with  guns  in  their  hands — men  who  will  not  desert 
their  colors,  as  some  of  your  Northern  men  have  done, 
in  Mexico  and  elsewhere  ! 

Through  the  heart  of  the  Slave  States  runs  the 
mighty  "Father  of  Waters,"  into  whose  bosom  are 
poured  THIRTY-SIX  THOUSAND  MILES  of  tributary 
streams.  And  in  the  great  "Valley  of  the  Mississippi" 
is  to  be  the  seat  of  the  world's  empire !  We  have  a 
shore-line  of  over  three  thousand  miles,  and  so  indented 
with  bays,  and  crowded  with  islands,  as  to  make  the 
whole  measurement  twelve  thousand  miles  !  We  have 
the  best  soil  and  the  best  climate  anywhere  to  be  found, 
in  an  equal  extent  of  territory,  on  the  face  of  God's 
green  earth ! 

In  his  contrast  between  the  soil  of  the  South  and 
that  of  the  North,  he  singled  out  North  Carolina. 
Why  not  call  up  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Alabama,  Mis 
sissippi,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  ?  No  soil  in 
the  North  will  compare  with  these  States ! 

The  exportable  products  of  the  fifteen  Slave  States 
amount  annually  to  $270,000,000,  exclusive  of  gold 
and  foreign  merchandise  re-exported ;  and  their  annual 
demand  for  the  productions  of  other  countries  is  about 
$225,000,000. 

There  are  80,000  cotton  plantations  in  the  South, 
and  the  aggregate  value  of  their  annual  products  is 
23 


266  AFFIRMATIVE,    T. 

$128,000,000.  There  are  16,000  tobacco  plantations, 
and  their  annual  products  amount  to  $15,000,000. 
There  are  2600  sugar  plantations,  the  products  of 
which  average  annually  $13,000,000.  There  are  700 
rice  plantations,  which  yield  annually  a  revenue  of 
$6,000,000.  Breadstuffs  and  provisions  yield  78,000,- 
000;  the  products  of  the  forest  amount  to  $10,700,000; 
manufactures  yield  $31,000,000 ;  and  the  products  of 
the  sea  yield  $3,356,000  — exclusive  of  $30,000,000 
we  send  to  the  North. 

The  facts  and  figures  I  have  submitted  in  the  fore 
going  remarks,  rest  mostly  upon  the  authority  of  the 
Southern  Cultivator,  De  Bow's  Review,  and  the  speeches 
in  Congress  of  SENATOR  HAMMOND  and  REPRESENTA 
TIVE  KEITT,  of  South  Carolina.  But  I  am  happy  to 
find  all  the  leading  facts  I  have  submitted  sustained  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  United  States'  Treasury,  in  his 
late  Report.  I  will  read  his  statistics  of  exportation, 
as  they  show  which  section  of  our  Confederacy  fur 
nishes  them.  This  statistical  report  was  laid  before 
Congress  by  JAMES  BUCHANAN,  and  by  him  endorsed: 

"  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  his  late  Report,  sets 
down  the  exportation  of  domestic  produce,  exclusive  of  specie, 
at  $266,438,051.  Of  this  amount,  cotton,  which  is  exclu 
sively  from  the  South,  furnishes  $128,382,351;  tobacco  gives 
$12,221,843;  and  rice  yields  $2,390,233  —  both  of  which, 
also,  are  exclusively  Southern;  breadstuffs  and  provisions 
are  estimated  at  $77,686,455;  products  of  the  forest  at 
$10,694,184;  of  manufactures  at  830,970,992;  of  the  sea 
at  $3,356,797.  Now  take  $128,382,351  for  the  value  of 
cotton,  and  $12,221,843  for  tobacco,  and  $2,390,233  for  rice, 
which  are 'exclusively  Southern  staples,  and  we  have  the  sum 
of  $142,994,4^7,  which  the  South  contributes  to  the  expor 
tation  of  the  country  in  three  staple  products,  which,  in  the 


BY    W.     G.    BROWNLOW.  267 

Union,  arc  only  raised  within  her  limits.  But  her  contribu 
tion  does  not  stop  here.  Of  the  $77,680,455  furnished  by 
breadstuff's  and  provisions,  she  contributed  at  least  $25,000,- 
000 ;  of  the  products  of  the  forest,  in  the  shape  of  lumber, 
etc.  she  contributed  about  $5,000,000,  or  one-half  of  the 
exportation.  These  $30,000,000,  added  to  the  $142,994,427 
which  we  have  already  shown  was  furnished  by  cotton,  to 
bacco,  and  rice,  make  up  $172,994,427,out  of  the  $266,438,051 
to  which  the  whole  domestic  exportation  amounts.  This  would 
leave  $93,443,624,  for  the  domestic  exportation  from  all  the 
Free  States.  But  this  is  more  than  they  are  entitled  to. 
Of  the  $30,970,992  contributed  by  domestic  manufactures, 
at  least  $10,000,000  is  the  value  of  the  raw  material  not 
grown  at  the  North.  This  leaves  only  $83,442,624  as  the 
contribution  of  the  Free  States  against  $172,994,427,  as  tho 
contribution  of  the  Southern  or  Slave.  States  to  the  domes 
tic  exportation  of  the  country/' 

Where  are  your  boasted  statistics  now,  Mr.  Pryne? 
It  will  be  seen,  from  the  foregoing,  that  the  South 
furnishes  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  exportation  of 
the  Union,  after  all  your  boasting  at  the  North,  and 
your  erroneous  arguments  to  prove  that  slavery  de 
stroys  the  industrial  pursuits  of  a  country.  Shame  on 
your  array  of  false  statistics ! 

Talk  about  the  patriotism  of  the  North,  and  the 
devotion  of  her  people  to  this  Union !  The  first  blood 
shed  in  defence  of  liberty,  and  in  opposing  English 
oppressions,  was  in  the  South  —  yes,  in  the  much- 
abused,  slave-holding,  and  slave-dealing  South !  The 
State  of  North  Carolina  —  the  glorious  "Old  North 
State"  —  the  Rip  Van  Winkle  of  the  South,  whose 
poverty  you  have  here  derided,  is  entitled  to  the  honor ! 
It  was  during  the  gubernatorial  administration  of  the 
notorious  GOVERNOR  TRYON,  the  English  governor  at 
the  time,  who  built  one  of  the  most  splendid  palaces  in 


268  AFFIRMATIVE.    V. 

either *North  or  South  America,  at  Newbern,  North 
Carolina,  with  the  proceeds  of  taxes  imposed  upon  the 
people  for  that  purpose,  and  to  resist  which  the  people 
rebelled,  just  as  did  the  men  of  Massachusetts  after 
wards.  The  battle  took  place  in  the'year  1771,  and 
is  narrated  by  Wheeler  in  his  "  History  of  North 
Carolina."  On  the  16th  of  May,  in  that  year,  the 
battle  was  fought  between  the  Americans,  called  the 
"  Regulators,"  and  the  British  troops,  under  the  con 
trol  of  the  Governor,  on  the  banks  of  the  Alamance 
river,  in  what  is  known  now  as  the  county  of  that 
name.  The  British  forces,  including  militia  called  out 
by  Tryon,  amounted  to  eleven  hundred.  The  Ameri 
can  forces  amounted  to  two  thousand.  The  Royal 
forces  had  the  advantage  in  discipline  and  arms,  but, 
after  an  action  of  two  hours,  came  out  of  the  contest 
with  sixty  killed  and  wounded ;  while  the  Americans 
had  twenty  killed  and  several  wounded.  Wheeler 
says: 

"Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Alamance.  Thus  and  here 
was  the  first  Hood  spil/ed,  in  these  United  States,  in  resist 
ance  to  exactions  of  English  rulers  and  oppressions  by  the 
English  government.  'The  great  wdf  of  South  Carolina' 
showed  his  blood-barbarity.  He  hung  Captain  Tew"  the  next 
day,  without  trial,  on  a  tree. 

"  It  was  in  this  case,  as  Byron  truly  says  in  one  of  his 
poems  — 

"  '  For  Freedom's  battle  once  begun, 
Bequeathed  from  bleeding  sire  to  son, 
Though  sometimes  lost  is  ever  won/ 

"  Thus  we  see  that  it  was  at  the  battle  of  Alamance,  and 
not  at  Bunker  Hill,  that  the  first  American  blood  was  shed 
in  the  cause  of  liberty.  *  Honor  to  whom  honor  is  due.'  " 


BY   W.    O.    BROWNLOV.  269 

What  next?  Talk  to  me  about  the  North  having 
furnished  the  great  men  of  the  country.  This  will  do 
to  tell  to  the  marines.  If  we  look  into  the  history  of 
the  past,  we  shall  find  names  in  the  South  that  will 
certainly  live  as  long  in  history,  and  in  marble,  as  in, 
the  North.  Aye,  there  is  one  Southern  name  with 
which  there  is  none  to  compare,  either  in  the  North  or 
in  the  civilized  world.  I  pronounce  the  name  of  the 
"  incomparable  WASHINGTON,"  a  celebrated  old  Virginia 
slave-holder,  and  I  call  upon  EDWARD  EVERETT  to 
testify,  that  the  Northern  colonies  were  eager  to  make 
him  Commander-in-chief  of  their  forces  in  the  war  of 
the  Revolution,  and  unanimously  elected  him  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States.  Of  the  fifteen  Pre 
sidents  of  the  United  States,  nine  of  them  were 
Southern  men.  And  who  will  say  that  the  names  of 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson, 
Harrison,  Polk,  and  Taylor,  are  not  quite  as  illustrious 
as  those  of  the  Adamses,  Van  Buren,  Fillmore,  Pierce, 
and  Buchanan  ? 

If  the  North  has  produced  a  Samuel  Adams,  a 
Hamilton,  a  Franklin,  a  Story,  and  a  Webster,  the 
sunny  South  has  fjiven  birth  to  a  Patrick  Henry,  a 
Clay,  a  Calhoun,  a  Marshall,  and  others  of  eminent 
talents.  If  the  North  has  given  to  the  country  more 
than  her  share  of  distinguished  authors  and  scholars, 
the  South  has  yielded  more  than  its  share  of  the  most 
distinguished  generals,  statesmen,  and  politicians. 

In  conclusion,  I  am  no  alarmist ;  I  am  no  spiritual 

dreamer;  I  .am  no  prophet;  nor  am  I  the  son  of  a 

prophet;  but  allow  me  to  say, 'there  exists  among  the 

villanous    agitators   of    the   slavery   question   at   the 

23* 


270  AFFIRMATIVE,   V. 

North,  a  determination  to  doom  to  utter  extinction 
both  the  rights  and  institutions  of  the  South.  It  is 
quite  impossible  that  the  signs  of  the  times  can  be 
misconstrued.  A  dissolution  of  the  Union  is  what  a 
large  portion  of  Northern  Abolitionists  are  aiming  at. 
No  longer  ago  than  the  4th  of  August,  1858,  the 
"  Liberty  Party,"  as  they  style  themselves,  held  a 
Convention  at  Syracuse,  and  nominated  Gerrit  Smith 
for  governor.  My  friend,  REV.  ABRAM  PKYNE, 
figured  largely  in  that  meeting.  He  was  the  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  resolutions,  and  of  course  wrote, 
as  well  as  reported.,  what  was  adopted.  I  quote  one 
of  his  resolutions,  adopted  with  great  eclat  by  the 
Convention : 

"Resolved,  That  American  slavery  is  a  crime  against  God 
and  man,  of  such  matchless  magnitude  that  no  forms  of  law 
can  change  its  infernal  character  —  no  limitations  or  selec 
tions  of  its  territory  or  its  power  can  reconcile  us  to  its  con 
tinued  existence;  but  we  raise  our  voices  in  the  name  of 
God  and  humanity  to  demand  its  eradication  from  every 
foot  of  the  soil  of  our  country. 

I  can  tell  the  gentleman,  and  all  who  are  of  like 
resolution,  that  if  their  great-grand-flhildren  live  to  see 
"American  Slavery"  eradicated  from  the  States  South, 
where  it  now  is,  by  the  sanction  of  law  and  the  pro 
visions  of  our  Constitution,  as  well  as  with  the  approba 
tion  of  God  himself,  they  will  live  until  their  heads  are 
as  grey  as  a  Norwegian  rat.  We  came  honestly  by  our 
slaves  at  the  South — we  are  treating  them  as  the  law 
of  God  directs — and  before  we  will  have  them  seized 
and  carried  off  by  Abolitionists,  we  will  pour  out  our 
blood  as  freely  as  we  would  water.  The  South  is  able 


BY   W.    G.    BROWN  LOW.  271 

to  take  care  of  herself,  and  she  intends  to  do  it  at  all 
hazards,  and  to  the  last  extremity. 

The  opposers  of  the  South,  by  these  ultra  measures, 
seek  to  drive  us  out  of  the  Union,  that  they  may 
appropriate  to  themselves,  when  war  comes,  if  come 
it  must,  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  contents  of  the 
national  treasury !  But  we  of  the  South  intend  to 
fight  you  in  the  Union,  not  out  of  it !  And  when  your 
blue-bellied  Yankees  come  South,  with  "  Sharp's  rifles 
and  Holy  Bibles,"  to  seize  upon  our  slaves,  let  me  say 
to  you,  that  they  will  not  find  themselves  in  Kansas  I 

What  next  ?  Abolitionists  at  the  North  are  ignorant 
of  the  South,  in  all  material  respects.  Those  only  who 
reside  there,  or  who  have  travelled  extensively  through 
the  Southern  States,  know  their  people,  their  soil, 
climate,  arid  capacities.  Cast  your  eyes  to  the  "  sunny 
South,"  my  countrymen,  and  what  a  glorious  prospect 
meets  the  view  !  Search  creation  round,  and  where 
do  you  find  a  land  that  presents  such  a  scene  for  con 
templation  !  Look  at  our  institutions,  our  agricultural 
and  commercial  interests;  and  above  all,  and  more 
than  all,  look  at  the  gigantic  strides  we  are  making 
in  all  that  ennobles  human  kind ! 

Yes,  gentlemen,  ours  is  the  land  of  chivalry,  the 
land  of  the  muse,  the  abode  of  statesmen,  the  home 
of  oratory,  the  dwelling-place  of  the  historian,  and  of 
the  hero;  the  scenes  of  classic  recollections  and  of 
hallowed  associations  lie  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
Line  ;  /and  \vhen  the  South  is  prostrated,  (which  God 
in  his  mercy  never  intends,)  the  genius  of  the  world 
will  weep  amid  the  ruins  of  the  only  true  Republic 
ever  known  to  civilized  man  \\ 


272  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

In  saying  this,  I  am  not  for  separating  from  the 
North,  or  dissolving  the  Union.  I  am  willing  to  live 
and  die  for  America,  as  she  is,  and  has  been;  but 
America  without  the  South,  and  blight,  ruin,  and  decay 
come  upon  us ;  and  we  bid  a  long  farewell  to  the  last 
remnant  of  earth's  beauty  and  the  light  of  heaven ! 

Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  the  American  Union  ? 
Proud,  happy,  thrice  happy  America  !  the  home  of 
the  oppressed !  the  asylum  of  the  emigrant ;  where 
the  citizen  of  every  clime,  and  the  child  of  every  creed, 
roams  free  and  untrammelled  as  the  wild  winds  of 
heaven  !  Baptized  at  the  fount  of  Liberty,  in  fire  and 
blood,  cold  must  be  the  heart  that  thrills  not  at  the 
name  of  the  American  Union ! 

When  the  old  world,  with  "  all  its  pomp,  and  pride, 
and  circumstance,"  shall  be  covered  with  oblivion  — 
when  thrones  shall  have  crumbled,  and  dynasties  shall 
have  been  forgotten — may  this  glorious  Union,  despite 
the  mad  schemes  of  Southern  fire-eaters  and  Northern 
Abolitionists,  stand  amid  regal  ruin  and  national  deso 
lation,  towering  sublime,  like  the  last  mountain  in  the 
Deluge  ; —  majestic,  immutable,  and  magnificent ! 

In  pursuance  of  this,  let  every  conservative  Northern 
man,  who  loves  his  country  and  her  institutions,  shake 
off  the  trammels  of  Northern  fanaticism,  and  swear 
upon  the  altar  of  his  country  that  he  will  stand  by  her 
Constitution  and  laws  !  Let  every  Southern  man  shake 
off  the  trammels  of  disunion  and  nullification,  and 
pledge  his  life  and  his  sacred  honor  to  stand  by  the 
Constitution  of  his  country  as  it  is,  the  laws  as  enacted 
by  Congress,  and  interpreted  by  the  Supreme  Court. 
Then  we  shall  see  every  heart  a  shield,  and  a  drawn 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  273 

sword  in  every  hand,  to  preserve  the  ark  of  our  political 
safety  !  Then  we  shall  see  reared  a.  fabric  upon  our 
National  Constitution,  which  time  cannot  crumble, 
persecution  shake,  fanaticism  disturb,  nor  revolution 
change,  but  which  shall  stand  among  us  like  some  lofty 
and  stupendous  Appenine,  while  the  earth  rocks  at 
its  feet,  and  the  thunder  peals  above  its  head ! 

Contemplating  our  country  and  her  Northern  foes, 
a  specimen  of  whom  is  here  before  us,  may  I  not 
exclaim  with  the  poet : 

"  Country  !  —  on  thy  sons  depending, 
Strong  in  manhood,  bright  in  bloom, 
Hast  thou  seen  thy  pride  descending, 
Shrouded  to  the*  unbounded  tomb? 
Rise!  —  on  eagle  pinion  soaring  — 
Rise! — like  one  of  God-like  birth  — 
And,  Jehovah's  aid  imploring, 
Sweep  the  spoiler  from  the  earth." 

In  conclusion,  I  shall  bestow  but  a  few  moments' 
reflections  upon  the  speech  the  gentleman  delivered 
last  evening.  He  said  he  would  not  attempt  a  reply 
to  my  arguments,  because  they  were  not  what  he 
expected  to  hear — they  were  not  the  arguments  he  had 
known  Southern  men  to  use  —  he  therefore  would  state 
the  arguments  used  by  Southern  men,  that  he  might 
apply  to  them  the  answers  he  had  prepared  before  he 
left  home  !  This  humiliating  confession  his  pride  of 
character  should  have  prevented  him  from  making 
before  a  public  assemblage,  even  of  Abolitionists.  He 
would  make  an  argument  for  the  South,  and.  then  over 
throw  it !  This  is  the  course  of  Abolitionists.  They 
make  all  they  assert,  or  charge  against  the  South,  and 


274  AFFIRMATIVE,    V. 

nine  times  out  of  ten,  they  assert  and  charge  what  is 
false.     But  enough  as  to  this  humiliating  confession  ! 

My  extension  of  the  Scriptural  argument  in  favor  of 
slavery,  he  met  with  the  sweeping  assertion,  that  it 
was  a  rehash  of  my  former  speech ;  and  with  a  tirade 
of  abuse,  and  a  collection  of  profane  words  and  ideas, 
he  wound  up  in  a  style  disgusting  to  any  decent,  not 
to  say  Christian  gentleman.  If  he  could  believe,  for  a 
moment,  that  the  Bible  sanctioned  slavery,  he  would 
have  no  use  for  its  teachings,  and  would  only  regard  it 
as  fit  for  a  foot-ball !  If  he  could  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  sanctioned  slavery,  he  would  cease  to  be  a 
Christian,  and  turn  infidel,  and  would  be  in  favor  of 
changing  the  name  of  Jesus  to  Devil.  This  blasphe 
mous  language,  in  mercy  to  the  cause  of  Abolitionism, 
even  the  newspaper  reporters  have  suppressed  !  This 
wicked  language  excited  the  disgust  of  every  truly  de 
cent  man  in  the  Hall ;  its  monstrosity,  bad  as  are  the 
meaner  portion  of  Abolitionists,  must  have  been  re 
volting  to  them ! 

He  next  entered  upon  the  Dred  Scott  decision  —  de 
nounced  the  President  and  his  Cabinet  —  villified  the 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  from  Taney  down  — 
charged  them  with  personal  corruption,  and  official  de 
linquency — and  thanked  God  that  they  would  not  live 
always  ! "  Gentlemen,  is  he  not  a  pretty  disciple  to  call 
in  question  the  correctness  of  the  decisions  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court !  In  what  law  school 
was  he  brought  up  ?  He  had  better  withdraw  his  man 
Gerritt  Smith  from  the  race  for  Governor,  and  run  him 
for  President,  and  if  elected,  he  will  select  this 
Lawyer  Pryne  for  his  Attorney-General,  or  appoint 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  275 

him  to  the  Supreme  Bench.  What  a  dignified  judge 
he  would  make  !  With  what  an  ease  and  grace  he 
would  discharge  fugitive  slaves,  when  arrested ! 

The  truth  is,  there  are  but  a  few  thousand  persons 
in  the  Empire  State,  who  swallow  the  monstrous  doc 
trines  of  Smith,  Douglass,  Pryne,  and  Co.  The  Re 
publicans  and  Americans  have  recently  nominated  their 
candidates,  and  refuse  to  support  Smith.  The  mon 
strous  character  of  the  sentiments  held  by  this  gentle 
man,  are  not  fully  understood.  He  pretends  to  take 
offence  at  my  asking  him  whether  he  is  willing  his 
daughter  should  marry  a  negro  or  not,  when,  in  fact, 
he  is  an  amalgamationist  in  sentiment,  if  not  in  prac 
tice.  You  have  heard  his  eulogy  upon  Frederick 
Douglass,  and  his  full  endorsement  of  that  arrogant 
and  vulgar  negro's  sentiments.  Then,  to  get  at  the 
real  sentiments  and  feeling  of  Abram  Pryne,  you  have 
but  to  know  those  of  Douglass,  whom  he  acknowledges 
to  be  his  superior,  and  to  whom,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
he  looks  up.  Here  is  an  extract  from  a  newspaper  re 
port  of  a  speech  by  Douglass,  published  in  the  Chicago 
Times,  where  Douglass  spoke  during  the  late  Presiden 
tial  contest : 

*  #  *  u  There  were  white  men  and  sooty  wenches,  and 
black  men  and  white  women,  all  listening  with  open  mouths 
to  this  negro,  who  boasted  that  white  and  black  people  were 
disappearing,  and  nmlattoes  were  fast  increasing.  He  rejoiced 
that  this  amalgamation  was  progressing,  and  his  white  and 
black  audience  responded  with  cheers  and  tumultuous  ap 
plause  to  the  disgusting  sentiment. 

"  Fair  white  maidens  were  there,  smiling  upon  the  cham 
pion  of  freedom  and  Fremont,  and  applauding;  with  their 
gloved  hands  his  earnest  wish  that  the  distinction  between 
the  white  and  black  races  would  be  lost,  and  instead  of  them 


276  AFFIRM  AT  I  VE,    V. 

there  would  soon  be  but  one  race — the  descendants  of  white 
women  and  black  men- — black  women  and  white  men.  He 
thanked  God  that  the  mulatto  race  was  on  the  increase  in 
Chicago,  and  his  audience  cried — Amen  V 

As  great  as  is  his  aversion  to  answering  my  ques 
tions,  I  again  propound  several  to  him,  and  I  know  this 
audience  would  like  to  hear  him  say  yes  or  no.  Does 
h  believe  the  negro  to  be  the  equal  of  the  white  man  ? 
If  so,  is  he  in  favor  of  amalgamation? 

Again :  is  he  not  a  stockholder  in  the  Syracuse 
underground  railroad  ?  Has  he  never,  directly  or 
indirectly,  aided  fugitive  slaves  in  escaping  from  their 
lawful  owners  ?  Would  he,  if  an  opportunity  were  to 
offer,  assist  a  runaway  slave  in  making  his  escape  ?  If 
he  have  thus  assisted,  he  is  a  negro-stealer  !  If  he  have 
not,  but  would  do  so,  if  an  opportunity  were  to  offer,  he 
is  a  negro-thief  at  heart,  and  is  condemned  by  the  law 
of  God! 

One  other  remark,  and  I  take  my  seat.  The  gen 
tleman  had  the  brazen  effrontery  to  stand  here  last  eve 
ning,  and  say  that  he  "  had  stooped  very  low  when  he 
engaged  in  this  debate."  This  pretence  is  set  up  now 
as  an  excuse  for  not  agreeing  to  meet  me  south  of  Ma 
son  and  Dixon's  Line,  or  debating  this  question  time 
about,  on  each  side  of  the  line  !  What  a  fanatical  out 
burst  of  pretended  respectability  !  To  Be  candid — and 
I  deal  in  nothing  else  —  Mr.  Pryne  never  was  known 
beyond  the  smoke  of  his  own  chimney,  until  I  brought 
him  into  notice  by  accepting  his  challenge !  He  has 
lived  thirty-six  years  in  this  present  evil  world,  without 
ever  having  been  elevated  above  the  dignity  of  a  brake- 
man  or  conductor,  on  an  underground  railroad !  I 


BY   W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  277 

deny  the  possibility  of  his  stooping  at  all.  A  man  must 
first  elevate  himself  before  he  can  stoop,  and  this  he  has 
never  done,  unless  his  associations  here  with  free  ne 
groes  have  elevated  him ! 

He  attributed  remarks  to  Henry  Clay  last  evening, 
that  Henry  Clay  never  made.  If  they  were  ever 
uttered  at  all,  they  were  uttered  by  some  one  else.  I 
repeat,  he  read  a  forged  extract  upon  Henry  Clay.  I 
make  this  announcement  because  Mr.  Clay  is  not  here 
to  set  himself  right !  Not  only  did  Mr.  Clay  never 
utter  the  words  or  sentiments  you  have  attributed  to 
him,  but  I  believe  they  never  were  uttered  by  any  one 
else.  I  repeat  the  charge* of  forgery,  and  it  remains 
for  you  to  produce  your  authority,  or  remain  under 
censure.  With  this  distinct  avowal,  I  would  let  this 
matter  pass,  but  I  choose  to  go  further  ;  I  dare  to  assert, 
that  in  his  rejoinder  he  will  not  "stoop"  to  notice  this 
matter,  and  for  obvious  reasons  ! 

The  Evening  Journal  of  to-day,  in  a  pretended 
report  of  the  discussion  of  last  evening,  prefaces  the 
same  with  these  editorial  remarks  : 

"  In  the  course  of  his  remarks,  Mr.  Brownlow  took  occasion 
to  reflect,  upon  the  reporters  for  the  press  of  this  city,  saying 
that  they  were  prejudiced  against  him  and  his  cause,  and  had 
embraced  every  opportunity  to  misrepresent  him  in  his 
speeches.  We  have  been  assured  that  these  remarks  were 
not  meant  to  refer  to  the  reporters  of  the  EVENING  JOURNAL, 
the  only  paper  in  the  city  which  has  presented  full  and  accu 
rate  accounts  of  the  discussion  thus  far. 

Now,  permit  me  to  say,  that  I  never  "  assured"  the 
Journal,  or  its  reporter,  that  my  remarks  were  not  in 
tended  for  it,  nor  did  I  authorize  any  one  else  to  give 
24 


278  AFFIRM  ATI  VE,    V. 

such  assurance.  On  the  contrary,  I  meant  the  Journal 
above  all  other  papers  in  the  city.  Its  reporter  came 
to  me  for  my  manuscript  this  morning,  and  I  told  him 
in  the  presence  of  others,  that  I  would  decline  furnish 
ing  it,  on  account  of  the  one-sided,  illiberal,  and  false 
reports  given.  His  reply  was  that  he  desired  to  give 
my  speech  in  full,  that  justice  might  be  done  me.  Upon 
these  express  terms  I  gave  it  to  him.  And  in  the  very 
paper  from  which  I  take  this  false  extract,  less  than 
one  column  is  occupied  in  reporting  my  speech,  while 
three  entire  columns  are  devoted  to  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Pryne  !  I  have  no  respect  for  any  such  journals,  and 
I  have  no  apologies  to  offer  their  reporters  for  any 
offence  I  have  given  them ! 

Finally,  it  is  customary  on  such  occasions  as  this  for 
the  disputants  to  ex'press  their  admiration  of  the  patient 
and  protracted  attention.  For  the  general  decorum 
and  most  exemplary  behavior  of  the  decent  portion 
of  the  audience,  I  return  my  sincere  thanks.  To  the 
opposite  class,  largely  in  the  majority,  my  competitor 
will  no  doubt  make  suitable  acknowledgments  ! 

His  illustration  of  Southern  Christianity  in  the  case 
of  a  master  chaining  a  slave  to  a  cart,  while  he  himself 
went  to  the  communion-table,  I  must  notice  briefly,  and 
then  I  am  done.  I  have  denied  that  any  such  case 
ever  occurred  in  any  Southern  State,  and  I  repeat  this 
denial.  He  has  been  called  upon  by  a  medical  student 
in  this  city,  to  say  if  the  case  he  pretends  to  give  had 
occurred  in  Florida,  and  if  his  Presbyterian  clergyman 
were  Henry  Cherry.  His  answer  was,  that  it  occurred 
in  Florida,  and  that  Mr.  Cherry  was  the  minister. 
Now,  the  whole  story  is  without  foundation  in  truth. 


BY    W.    G.    BROWNLOW.  279 

This  man  Cherry  is  a  Northern  Abolitionist  —  he  was 
once  a  missionary  in  India,  as  my  information  runs  — 
he  studied  Divinity  with  H.  Ward  Seecher,  and  settled 
in  Florida,  near  to  the  Georgia  line.  He  was  turned 
out  of  the  Presbyterian  ministry  for  drunkenness.  He 
went  in  debt  in  Thomasville,  Georgia,  to  all  who  would 
credit  him,  until  he  owed  the  business  men  near  two 
thousand  dollars,  which  he  owes  yet,  as  he  escaped  from 
the  country  between  two  days,  the  favorite  time  for 
starting  trains  on  underground  railroads  !  He  is  now, 
if  still  living,  in  his  congenial  North,  and  is  a  fit  subject 
to  slander  the  high-minded  and  hospitable  people  of  the 
South.  And  in  every  instance  where  names  are  given 
up,  as  to  the  cruelties  of  slave-owners  in  the  South,  the 
witnesses  will  turn  out  to  be  in  keeping  with  this  fallen 
minister,  degraded  hypocrite,  and  vile  Abolitionist. 
Nay,  in  nino  cases  out  of  ten,  the  retailers  of  these 
slanders  are  of  "the  same  sort"  themselves  ! 

For  the  truth  of  what  I  here  say,  as  to  Cherry,  and 
this  slander  of  a  Florida  slave-holder,  I  refer  to  Rev. 
H.  W.  Sharp,  and  Major  John  D.  Edwards,  of  Thomas 
ville,  Ga.,  and  to  Captain  James  E.  Edwards,  and  R. 
B.  Evans,  of  Newport,  Florida ! 


"OUGHT  AMERICAN  SLAVERY  TO  BE  PERPETUATED?" 
NEGATIVE,  V.  —  BY  ABRAM  PRYNE. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMAN  :— Before  entering  upon  my 
argument  of  this  evening,  allow  me  to  refer  to  two  or 
three  extraneous  matters,  belonging  to  the  courtesies 
and  proprieties  of  this  occasion  —  matters  in  which 
others  than  the  disputants  in  this  debate  are  interested. 

In  the  first  place,  I  desire  to  acknowledge  the 
courtesy,  kindness  and  liberality  of  the  Philadelphia 
press.  In  the  published  reports,  both  sides  have,  so 
far  as  I  know,  been  treated  fairly  —  except  that  some 
times  Mr.  Brownlow's  speeches  could  not  be  obtained 
in  full.  My  opponent  last  night  spoke  complainingly 
of  the  reporters.  Allow  me  to  say  that  my  intercourse 
with  this  class  of  your  citizens  has  impressed  me  with 
the  fact  that  they  are  well-behaved  gentlemen.  The 
enterprise  of  the  press  which  has  published  these 
speeches  entitles  it  to  the  good  consideration  of  Phila- 
delphians. 

And  now,  lest  it  should  be  thought  by  some  that  I 
consider  Gen.  Small  as  in  the  slightest  degree  responsi 
ble  for  any  of  the  sentiments  uttered  in  this  debate, 
allow  me  to  say  that  I  regard  him  as  having  acted  like 
a  high-minded  and  liberal  gentleman,  in  consenting  to 
read  the  addresses  of  my  opponent ;  for,  without  such 
consent,  the  debate  could  not  have  proceeded.  I  know 

(280) 


NEGATIVE,    V. — BYABRAMPRYNE.         281 

nothing  of  Gen.  Small's  political  views,  nor  do  I  care 
what  they  may  be ;  for  in  my  intercourse  with  him 
during  the  progress  of  this  debate,  he  has  acted  in  so 
gentlemanly  a  manner  as  to  put  himself  above  all 
questions  of  politics  and  partizanship,  and  commend 
himself  to  my  warm  regards. 

My  opponent  has  made  some  remarks  as  to  my 
speeches  being  prepared  before  I  left  home.  I  have 
only  to  say  that  an  allusion  of  this  kind  comes  with 
marked  grace  from  a  gentleman  who  came  here  with 
every  one  of  his  speeches  written  out — except  the  tail- 
end  !  He  must  have  taken  me  for  a  verdant  young 
man  from  the  "rural  districts"  if  he  supposes  I  would 
come  here  unprepared  to  meet  him.  Prepared,  cer 
tainly  :  he  gratuitously  and  blusteringly  advised  me, 
in  our  correspondence,  to  come  well  prepared,  and  I 
have  taken  his  advice. 

On  a  previous  evening  I  offered  to  repeat  this  debate 
with  my  opponent  in  principal  cities  of  the  North.  In 
reply,  he  asked  whether  I  would  discuss  the  question 
with  him  South  as  well  as  North.  In  order  that  you 
may  understand  my  position  in  regard  to  this  matte'r, 
let  me  state  a  few  facts. 

Mr.  Brownlow,  nearly  a  year  ago,  threw  out  a  chal 
lenge  which  he  caused  to  be  published  in  Northern 
papers,  that  he,  Parson  Brownlow,  intended  to  come 
North  on  a  missionary  tour ;  that  he  intended  to  spend 
the  summer  in  debating  the  slavery  question  with  what 
ever  Abolitionists  would  dare  to  meet  him,  and  men 
tioning  Theodore  Parker,  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 
others;  that  he  intended  to  show  himself  on  Boston 
Common,  and  that  he  could  speak  to  a  ten  acre  lot  full 
24* 


282  NEGATIVE,   V. 

of  people,  if  such  a  congregation  chose  to  assemble. 
It  was  in  the  North  that  all  this  was  to  be  done ;  it 
was  the  North  in  which  he  challenged  the  North  to 
meet  him.  Without  claiming  the  dignity  of  represent 
ing  the  North,  I  have  met  him  here  in  Philadelphia, 
and  offered  to  continue  the  debate  with  him  as  he  ad 
vances  in  his  missionary  tour  through  the  North.  He 
now  attempts  to  slip  through  my  fingers  by  asking  me 
to  go  South  with  him  half  the  time  —  a  proposition 
which  formed  no  part  of  his  original  challenge  to  the 
North. 

The  reason  why  I  cannot  accept  his  proposition  to 
debate  with  him  on  Southern  territory,  is  because  the 
South  dare  not  let  me  utter,  in  freedom,  my  sentiments. 
Every  citizen  of  Philadelphia  knows  that  this  is  the 
truth.  The  brave  South  meets  Northern  ministers  with 
mobs.  Let  a  man  attempt  to  address  to  the  Southern 
mind,  sentiments  with  which  the  people  of  that  section 
differ,  and  the  brave  South  gathers  hundreds  of  her 
roughest  citizens  to  argue  him  down  with  brickbats, 
and  bowie  knives,  and  pistols,  and  bludgeons.  I  can 
not  be  expected  to  stand  up  against  the  mobs  of  the 
South  with  such  arguments  as  they  employ.  In  a 
debate  with  such  weapons  as  the  South  is  accustomed 
to  use,  a  mob  of  thousands  of  her  brave  citizens  would 
be  too  much  for  me.  I  appeal  to  brains,  not  blud 
geons.  I  deal  with  truths,  and  not  with  revolvers.  An 
audience  of  Camanches  or  Root-Diggers,  would  be  too 
much  for  one  clergyman,  alone,  in  debate,  if  they  used 
the  usual  arguments  of  Southern  mobs.  They  meet 
reason  with  brickbats  and  pistols,  and  settle  questions 
of  ethics  and  logic  with  gutta  percha  canes,  evon  on 


BYABRAMPRYNE.  283 

the  floor  of  the  Senate ;  and  my  opponent  shows  his 
courage  by  inviting  me  to  meet  such  a  crowd  as  would 
be  gathered  in  the  South  to  hear  us.  A  fair  and  equal 
fight  that  would  be !  A  Southern  mob  of  thousands 
in  arms  against  a  single  minister.  Brave  South !  Tho 
South  will  not  let  me,  on  her  own  ground,  utter,  un 
molested,  my  own  free  thoughts  ;  and  therefore  I  call 
upon  my  opponent  to  abide  by  his  original  challenge, 
or  I  shall  hold  him  up  before  the  press  of  the  country 
as  having  receded  from  his  former  position. 

I  shall  now  reply  briefly  to  some  of  the  remarks 
which  you  have  to-night  heard  from  my  opponent,  and 
shall  then  sum  up  in  a  general  way  the  arguments  on 
my  side  of  the  question. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  that  the  North 
is  the  aggressor  in  this  Anti-Slavery  war.  Ask  the 
four  million  slaves  of  the  South  who  is  the  aggressor ! 
The  South,  having  stolen  the  slave  from  Africa, 
stripped  him  of  his  rights,  put  him  under  her  heel,  now 
stands  in  the  attitude  of  crushing  him  to  the  earth,  and 
when  the  North,  in  the  name  of  reason,  and  justice, 
and  humanity,  and  God,  protests  against  the  outrage, 
she  is  the  aggressor,  is  she  ?  A  ruffian  has  grasped 
your  little  child  by  the  throat,  and  as  it  looks  imploringly 
to  you,  you  rush  forward  to  defend  it,  when  the  wretch 
cries  out,  "  Go  away,  you  quarrelsome  fellow ;  don't 
try  to  get  me  into  a  fight ;  you  are  the  aggressor!" 

In  regard  to  this  slavery  controversy,  the  aggression 
commenced  when  the  fatal  wrong  of  slavery  began  ; 
and  the  North,  together  with  the  entire  civilized  world, 
now  stands  in  the  defence  of  humanity,  demanding  the 
freedom  of  the  slave. 


284 

Through  the  whole  history  of  the  slavery  dispute  in 
this  country,  the  South,  as  you  know,  has  been  the 
aggressor ;  the  aggressor  in  efforts  for  the  extension  of 
slave-holding  territory — the  aggressor  in  procuring  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  —  the  aggressor  in 
attempting  to  sway,  by  unworthy  influences,  the  politics 
of  the  country  —  the  aggressor  in  trying  to  fill,  not 
only  the  Presidential  Chair,  but  all  the  offices  of  the 
departments  and  of  the  army  and  navy,  with  her  own 
citizens.  The  advance  of  slave-holding  interests,  and 
the  increase  of  slave-holding  power,  has  been,  for  years 
and  years,  the  grand  aim  and  purpose  of  her  political 
action ;  and  now,  when  the  free  spirit  of  the  North  is 
at  last  aroused  to  protest  against  these  aggressions  on 
the  rights  of  the  North,  and  the  rights  of  man,  we  are 
to  be  called  the  aggressors,  are  we,  and  to  be  put  out 
of  the  controversy  on  that  ground? 

Let  me  now  make  a  brief  reference  to  that  clause 
of  the  Constitution  which  has  been  cited  as  the  basis 
of  the  fugitive  slave  act.  The  clause  reads  thus : — 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence 
of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  service 
or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due." 

This  clause  of  the  Constitution,  I  contend,  forms  no 
basis  for  a  fugitive  slave  law.  In  the  first  place,  its 
language  is,  "no  person  held  to  service  or  labor." 
The  Southern  doctrine  is,  that  slaves  are  "goods  and 
chattels  personal."  In  order  to  apply  to  the  slave,  it 
ought  to  have  said,  according  to  Southern  doctrine, 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  285 

"no  property  held  to  service"  —  "no  chattels  held  to 
service"  —  "no  goods  held  to  service."  The  personal 
ity  of  the  slave  must  either  be  admitted  altogether  or 
denied  altogether.  You  cannot  shift  your  ground. 
You  must  not  attempt  to  give  him  personality  when 
you  want  to  catch  him,  and  deny  him  personality  when 
you  want  to  buy  or  sell  him.  The  fact  is,  that,  in  the 
eye  of  Southern  law,  the  slave  is  not  a  person,  but  a 
thing.  The  distinction  between  personality  and  pro 
perty  causes  here  a  gap,  broad  and  deep  as  that  be 
tween  Dives  and  Lazarus,  which  the  South  must  over 
leap  before  it  can  make  this  clause  apply  to  the  slave. 

Again,  the  words  are,  "no  person  held  to  service  or 
labor  in  one  State  under  the  laws  thereof."  I  have, 
on  a  previous  evening,  proved  to  you  that  no  Southern 
State  has  on  its  statute-book  any  law  under  which  the 
master  can  claim  the  right  to  hold  his  slave.  I  have 
given  you  Senator  Mason's  statement  that  no  such  law 
could  be  produced.  The  slave  is  not  held  under  the 
sanctions  of  law.  Mere  possession,  mere  power  to 
hold  —  brute  force  —  is  all  the  law  that  the  master  can 
show  in  support  of  his  claim.  Thus,  we  have  another 
reason  why  this  clause  cannot  apply. 

The  words  "person  held  to  service"  do  not  legally 
describe  a  slave.  They  describe  a  Doctor  of  Divinity 
under  contract  to  "serve"  a  church,  or  a  salaried 
clerk,  or  a  free  chambermaid,  as  well.  A  legal  de 
scription  must  be  definite,  in  order  to  be  binding.  If 
you  contract  to  sell  an  "animal"  on  your  estate  for 
five  dollars,  and  the  other  party  claims  your  best  horse 
under  the  contract,  and  you  offer  him  your  dog,  claim 
ing  that  you  thus  meet  the  contract,  a  court  would 


286  NEGATIVE,   V. 

decide  the  contract  to  be  void  for  indefmiteness.  So, 
a  contract  to  deliver  up  a  " person  held  to  service" 
cannot  apply  to  a  chattel,  a  piece  of  goods,  held  by  no 
contract,  and  under  no  legal  obligation.  On  this  point 
Daniel  Webster  said,  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  March 
7,1850: 

"It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  allude  to  that  —  I  had 
almost  said  celebrated  —  opinion  of  Mr.  Madison.  You 
observe,  sir,  that  the  term  slavery  is  not  used  in  the  Consti 
tution.  The  Constitution  does  not  require  that  fugitive 
slaves  shall  be  delivered  up;  it  requires  that  persons  bound 
to  service  in  one  State,  and  escaping  into  another,  shall  be 
delivered  up.  Mr.  Madison  opposed  the  introduction  of  the 
term  slave  or  slavery  into  the  Constitution  •  for  he  said  he 
did  not  wish  to  see  it  recognized  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  that  there  could  be  property  in 
men/' 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  decided 
that  — 

"Where  rights  are  infringed,  where  fundamental  princi 
ples  are  overthrown,  where  the  general  system  of  the  laws  is 
departed  from,  the  legislative  intention  must  be  expressed 
with  irresistible  clearness,  to  induce  a  court  of  justice  to 
suppose  a  design  to  effect  such  objects. —  United  /States  vs. 
Fisher,  2  Cranch,  390. 

Again,  this  clause  provides  that  the  person  escaping 
shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  may  be  due.  You  must  prove 
that  there  is  labor  due  from  the  slave  to  the  man  who 
is  chasing  him  through  the  North.  But,  according  to 
Southern  law,  the  slave  can  hold  nothing,  can  own 
nothing,  can  owe  nothing;  and,  if  the  slave  cannot 
owe  anything,  how  can  there  be  any  labor  due  from 
him? 


BY    ABRAM    PEYNE.  287 

My  opponent  asks  me  tauntingly  whether  I  have  not 
stock  in  the  "underground  railroad?"  —  whether  I 
would  assist  a  fugitive  slave  in  making  his  escape  ?  I 
answer,  without  hesitation,  that,  if  a  poor  negro,  flee 
ing  from  Southern  oppression,  should  come  to  my  door 
at  night,  asking  for  shelter  and  a  bed,  I  would  give 
him  the  best  bed  in  my  humble  house ;  and  should  any 
kidnapper  come  in  pursuit  of  him,  I  happen  (though 
not  a  man  of  war)  to  have  in  my  possession  an  old 
rifle,  which  would  do  good  service  in  defending  him. 

My  opponent  has  used  the  name  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  to  give  weight  to  his  side  of  the  controversy. 
He  has  told  you  that  Franklin — whose  bones,  honored 
and  reverenced,  as  they  ought  to  be,  lie  among  you  — 
declined  to  act  with  the  Abolitionists  of  Pennsylvania ; 
refused  to  co-operate  with  the  Society  that  elected  him 
its  President.  I  happened  to  have  in  my  vest  pocket, 
at  the  moment  when  this  assertion  was  uttered,  a  copy 
of  a  petition  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  addressed  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  signed  by  Benja 
min  Franklin,  and  offered  by  him  on  the  floor  of 
Congress.  I  will  read  a  single  passage  from  this 
memorial : 

"  From  a  persuasion  that  equal  liberty  was  originally  the 
portion,  and  is  still  the  birthright  of  all  men,  and  influenced 
by  the  strong  ties  of  humanity  and  the  principles  of  our 
institutions,  your  memorialists  conceive  themselves  bound  to 
use  all  justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen  the  bands  of  slavery, 
and  to  promote  a  general  enjoyment  of  the  blessings  of 
freedom." 

This  is  my  sufficient  answer  to  the  imputation  that 
Benjamin  Franklin  was  in  favor  of  American  slavery. 


288  NEGATIVE,    V. 

"We  have  had  warmly  described  to  us  the  sea-coast 
of  the  South,  the  extent  of  her  harbors,  her  facilities 
for  commerce  and  navigation.  I  have  no  disposition 
to  deny  any  of  these  statements ;  I  myself  have  told 
you  that  the  South  is  far  ahead  of  the  North  in  natu 
ral  advantages.  But  how  does  she  improve  her  mag 
nificent  endowments?  What  advantage  is  it  to  her 
that  the  waters  of  the  ocean  wash  her  long- extending 
seaboard  ?  The  harbor  of  Beaufort,  N.  C.,  is,  in  natu 
ral  advantages,  second  to  none,  perhaps,  of  which  this 
continent  can  boast.  The  town  was  settled,  if  I  re 
member  rightly,  almost  as  early  as  Boston,  and  the 
harbor  is  nearly  equal  to  that  of  Boston.  Yet  make 
a  contrast  between  Boston  and  the  little  village  of 
Beaufort,  N.  C.,  with  its  magnificent  harbor  and  its 
dilapidated  houses,  the  grass  growing  in  its  streets, 
and  you  see  at  once  how  the  spirit  of  freedom  improves 
the  natural  advantages  that  she  bestows  on  the  North; 
while  the  South,  with  the  waves  of  the  ocean  dashing 
on  her  extended  coast,  and  her  spacious  harbors  invi 
ting  commerce  ;  with  a  seaboard  extending  from  Dela 
ware  Bay  around  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  and  along 
the  northern  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  far  up 
the  south-west,  where  the  Pacific  hurls  her  thundering 
waves  against  the  land  of  gold,  her  coast  is  made 
desolate  by  the  spirit  of  slavery,  checking  the  enter 
prise  and  genius  that  might  make  the  most  of  these 
great  natural  blessings.  The  point  which  I  make  is, 
that  the  North  is  ahead  in  wealth  and  power,  not 
in  consequence  of  her  superior  natural  advantages, 
but  in  spite  of  the  superior  natural  advantages  of  the 
South. 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  289 

And  here  let  me  read  a  single  extract.  Hear  how 
a  North  Carolinian  describes  your  Southern  harhors : 

"  How  is  it  with  Beaufort,  in  North  Carolina,  whose  har 
bor  is  said  to  be  the  safest  and  most  commodious  anywhere 
to  be  found  on  the  Atlantic  coast  south  of  the  harbor  of  New 
York,  and  but  little  inferior  to  that?  Has  anybody  ever 
heard  of  her  ?  Do  the  masts  of  her  ships  ever  cast  a  shadow 
on  foreign  waters  ?  Upon  what  distant  or  benighted  shore 
have  her  merchants  and  mariners  ever  hoisted  our  national 
ensign,  or  spread  the  arts  of  civilization  and  peaceful  indus 
try?  What  changes  worthy  of  note  have  taken  place  in  the 
physical  features  of  her  superficies  since  'the  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  third  day?'  But  we  will  make  no 
further  attempt  to  draw  a  comparison  between  the  populous, 
wealthy,  and  renowned  city  of  Boston,  and  the  obscure, 
despicable  little  village  of  Beaufort,  which,  notwithstanding 
<  the  placid  bosom  of  its  deep  and  well-protected  harbor/  has 
no  place  in  the  annals  or  records  of  the  country,  and  has 
scarcely  ever  been  heard  of  fifty  miles  from  home."  —  HEL 
PER  :  The  Impending  Crisis. 

And  here  is  the  description  of  Southern  dependence 
on  the  North : 

"  Reader!  would  you  understand  how  abjectly  slaveholders 
themselves  are  enslaved  to  the  products  of  Northern  indus 
try?  If  you  would,  fix  your  mind  on  a  Southern  '  gentle 
man' — a  slave-breeder  and  human-flesh  monger,  who  professes 
to  be  a  Christian !  Observe  the  routine  of  his  daily  life. 
See  him  rise  in  the  morning  from  a  Northern  bed,  and  clothe 
himself  in  Northern  apparel ;  see  him  walk  across  the  floor 
on  a  Northern  carpet,  and  perform  his  ablutions  out^  of  a 
Northern  ewer  and  basin.  See  him  uncover  a  box  of  North 
ern  powders,  and  cleanse  his  teeth  with  a  Northern  brush ; 
see  him  reflecting  his  physiognomy  in  a  Northern  mirror,  and 
arranging  his  hair  with  a  Northern  comb.  See  him  dosing 
himself  with  the  medicaments  of  Northern  quacks,  and  per 
fuming  his  handkerchief  with  Northern  colognes.  See  him 
referring  to  the  time  in  a  Northern  watch,  and  glancing  at 


290  NEGATIVE,    V. 

the  news  in  a  Northern  gazette.  See  him  and  his  family 
sitting  in  Northern  chairs,  and  singing  and  praying  out  of 
Northern  books.  See  him  at  the  breakfast  table,  saying 
grace  over  a  Northern  plate,  eating  with  Northern  cutlery, 
and  drinking  from  Northern  utensils.  See  him  charmed  with 
the  melody  of  a  Northern  piano,  or  musing  over  the  pages 
of  a  Northern  novel.  See  him  riding  to  his  neighbor's  in  a 
Northern  carriage,  or  furrowing  his  lands  with  a  Northern 
plow.  See  him  lighting  his  cigar  with  a  Northern  match, 
and  flogging  his  negroes  with  a  Northern  lash.  See  him, 
with  Northern  pen  and  ink,  writing  letters  on  Northern 
paper,  and  sending  them  away  in  Northern  envelopes,  sealed 
with  Northern  wax,  and  impressed  with  a  Northern  stamp." 
—  The  Impending  Crisis. 

In  regard  to  the  figures  which  my  opponent  has 
given  to-night,  let  me  say  that  his  statements  touched 
only  one  side.  He  offered  figures  to  prove  the  great 
ness  of  the  South;  but  he  did  not,  step  by  step,  give 
the  Northern  balance,  as  I  did  in  my  statistical  argu 
ment.  The  reason  he  did  not  do  so,  is  that  he  is 
ashamed  to.  Had  he  done  so  truthfully  and  faithfully, 
the  terrible  balance  against  the  South  would  have  over 
whelmed  him,  as  did  my  argument  on  that  subject  the 
other  night;  for  my  figures,  taken  from  the  Census 
Report,  cannot  be  controverted. 

Washington  has  been  again  alluded  to,  this  evening, 
as  a  friend  of  the  Union,  and  as  a  slaveholder.  Yes, 
gentlemen,  Washington  was  a  friend  of  the  Union.  So 
am  I.  If  any  of  you  understood  me  last  night  as 
being  in  favor  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  you  mis 
took  my  meaning.  The  purport  of  what  I  said  was, 
that  if  we  must  either  have  slavery  eternally,  or  have 
a  dissolution,  I  would  consent  even  to  dissolution  in  the 
end,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  slavery.  But  I  have  no 


BY    ABRAM    P.1YNE.  291 

belief  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  dissolve  the  Union  to 
secure  the  abolition  of  slavery.  On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  that  the  glorious  spirit  of  humanity  rising  in 
the  North  will  yet  dig  a  channel,  through  the  ballot- 
box,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  without  the  necessity 
of  resorting  to  dissolution. 

The  name  of  Washington  has  been  again  used  to  add 
sanction  to  slavery.  The  name  of  the  Father  of  our 
Country,  from  whatever  portion  of  it  he  came,  let  me 
speak  with  all  due  reverence,  and  that  reverence  will 
be  only  heightened  as  I  read  these  noble  words  of  his 
to  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  on  the  subject  of  slavery — 

"  The  scheme,  my  dear  Marquis,  which  you  propose  as  a 
precedent,  to  encourage  the  emancipation  of  the  black  people 
in  this  country  from  the  state  of  bondage  in  which  they  are 
held,  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the  benevolence  of  your  heart. 
I  shall  be  happy  to  join  you  in  so  laudable  a  work;  but  will 
defer  going  into  a  detail  of  the  business  till  I  have  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you." 

Every  time  my  opponent  attempts  to  cite  Washing 
ton,  or  any  of  the  Fathers,  as  favoring  American 
slavery,  I  can  answer  him  with  such  a  quotation  as  this 
in  black  and  white. 

A  matter  which  I  cannot  fail  to  notice,  as  a  pro 
minent  feature  of  this  debate,  is  the  effort  upon  the 
other  side,  to  change  the  issue.  We  came  here  to  dis 
cuss  the  question,  •' Should  American  Slavery  be  per 
petuated?"  My  opponent  was  to  support  the  affirma 
tive  of  this  question  ;  but  instead  of  offering  arguments 
tending  to  that  end  he  has  given  us  bitter  denunciations 
of  the  North,  alleging  that  it  is  a  horrible  land,  full  of 
hypocrisy,  pauperism  and  crime.  But  if  all  this  be 


292  NEGATIVE,     V. 

true,  how  does  it  affect  the  question  whether  slavery 
ought  to  he  abolished  ?  It  does  not  make  the  difference 
of  a  hair  in  the  decision  of  the  question.  It  strikes  me 
that  the  pot,  when  it  called  the  kettle  black,  did  not 
whiten  itself  much,  and  that  it  was  so  conscious  of  its 
own  infernal  blackness  that  it  wanted  to  relieve  itself 
by  getting  the  kettle  in  its  company. 

The  taunts  against  Northern  religion,  so  repeatedly 
thrown  out,  do  not  affect  the  issue.  If  we  are  all  a  set 
of  hypocrites,  is  that  any  reason  why  the  South  should 
be  all  a  set  of  baby-stealers  ?  Whatever  evils  prevail 
in  the  North  are  not  caused  by  freedom,  nor  are  they 
inseparable  from  it. 

My  opponent  has  told  us  of  the  kindness  of  masters. 
Supposing  it  to  be  proved  that  masters  are  most  kind, 
how  does  that  change  the  result  of  the  question  whether 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  right  ?  How  does 
that  prove  that  the  chattel  principle  is  founded  in 
justice  ?  But  I  do  not  acknowledge  that  masters  are 
kind.  I  would  not  admit  the  kindness  of  the  master, 
though  he  should  dress  his  slave  in  silks,  and  fill  his 
stomach  with  the  choicest  viands  of  the  land.  When  a 
man  lays  his  hand  on  my  personality,  and  blots  it  out 
"at  one  fell  swoop" — when  he  takes  the  keeping  of 
my  own  soul  and  conscience  into  his  tyrannical  hands 
—  and  then  cantingly  turns  to  me  and  talks  about 
kindness,  I  hurl  back  the  insulting  assumption  that  he 
may,  without-guilt,  trample  on  my  dearest  rights. 

Again :  The  argument  has  been  trailed  all  through 
this  debate,  that  God  allowed  the  Jews  to  hold  slaves. 
I  have  shown  that  the  word  "servant,"  as  used  in  the 
Bible,  does  not  mean  "slave,"  and  that,  therefore,  the 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE,  293 

argument  does  not  at  all  cover  the  ground.  But  even 
supposing  that  God  did  allow  the  Jews  to  hold  slaves, 
how  does  that  touch  the  question  whether  the  Yankees 
have  a  right  to  do  so  ?  Suppose  it  true  that  God  did 
permit,  in  that  age,  a  system  of  servitude  that  was 
wrong ;  so  did  he  allow  polygamy ;  but  does  that  fact 
prove  that  polygamy  is  right  now  ?  Many  things  were 
allowed  under  the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  which 
the  clearer  light  of  Christianity  has  swept  away  —  of 
which  the  better  day  that  dawned  with  the  coming  of 
Jesus  has  shown  us  the  error  and  enormity.  Christ, 
at  His  coming,  brushed  away  all  those  remnants  of  a 
darker  age,  giving  us  that  glorious  Gospel,  the  very 
genius  and  spirit  of  which  puts  all  humanity  on  one 
common  level,  and  makes  us  all  brothers.  When  the 
growing  light  of  Christianity  has  shone  for  eighteen 
hundred  years  —  when  ages  of  human  progress  have 
gathered  their  results  for  our  instruction  —  shall  we  — 
as  we  view  slavery  in  the  light  of  its  horrid  con 
sequences,  shown  over  the  track  of  centuries,  in  the 
light  of  its  desolating  effects  marked  out  through  the 
whole  pathway  of  history  —  shall  we  pronounce  it  in 
nocent  and  God-sanctioned,  simply  because  we  read 
that  some  of  the  ancient  patriarchs,  in  the  darker  ages, 
held  servants  ?  Why,  gentlemen,  if  I  had  not  quoted 
a  single  text,  if  I  had  not  stopped  to  reply  to  my 
opponent's  Scriptural  argument,  such  considerations  as 
these  would  be  all  sufficient  to  sweep  it  away  forever. 

Let  me  now  recapitulate  briefly  the  points  which  I 

have  endeavored  to  establish  by  my  several  arguments 

in  this  debate.     I  have  shown  that  slavery  began  in 

murder  and  piracy;   that,  such  being  its  illegitimate 

25* 


294  NEGATIVE,    V. 

and  villanous  birth,  it  ought  to  have  died  at  the  first ; 
and  that  the  retribution  of  an  incensed  God  and  the 
just  moral  sense  of  the  world  have  been  hunting  it 
from  that  time  to  this.  I  have  shown  that  slavery  has 
existed  without  the  sanction  of  genuine  law ;  in  defiance 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  in  violation  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States;  in  conflict  with 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  common  law,  and  in  the 
utter  absence  of  any  statutary  enactment  giving  it  crea 
tion  or  sanction.  I  have  swept  away  all  the  vestiges 
of  legal  seeming  that  have  been  gathered  around  it, 
and  revealed  it  to  your  gaze  standing  forth  in  all  the 
horrid  features  of  outrage  and  barbarity  that  marked  it 
at  its  birth  through  the  slave-trade.  I  have  brought 
to  bear  on  this  question  not  only  considerations  of 
morals,  but  considerations  of  politics,  showing  how  it 
disgraces  our  nation  before  the  civilized  world.  I  have 
urged  against  this  evil,  arguments  drawn  from  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  exhibited 
the  crushing  weight  of  slavery  upon  the  material  wealth 
and  progress  of  the  nation.  These  are  the  several 
points  which  I  have  sought  to  bring  before  your  minds. 

In  reply  to  what  I  have  said  in  regard  to  the  Old 
Testament  it  has  been  urged  that  the  New  Testament 
itself  sanctions  slavery.  I  remark,  in  reply,  that 
slavery  locks  the  Bible,  places  shackles  upon  the  -con 
science  of  the  Christian,  and  therefore  the  New  Testa 
ment  is  against  it. 

My  opponent  has,  from  time  to  time,  thrown  out 
taunts  at  Romanism,  because  of  its  retarding  influence 
on  the  enlightenment  of  the  world.  He  told  us  that 
the  most  cruel  slaveholders  in  the  South  were  Roman- 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  295 

ists.  I  am  no  Romanist,  or  defender  of  the  Romanists  ; 
still,  I  do  not  understand  this  to  be  true.  And  I  would 
remark  that  slavery,  in  the  course  it  pursues  with  regard 
to  religion,  in  locking  up  the  mind  of  the  slave,  in 
taking  the  Bible  from  his  hand,  in  controlling  his  con 
science  with  the  lash  of  the  slave-driver,  in  driving  him 
from  his  Sabbath  school,  in  forcing  him  into  a  religion 
that  he  loathes,  and  out  of  a  religion  that  he  would 
love,  if  he  were  not  obliged  to  have  it  crucified  and 
crushed  by  the  enormities  practised  upon  him  by  its 
professors ;  slavery,  in  doing  all  this,  develops  the 
darkest  features  of  the  spirit  of  Romanism. 

The  severest  complaint  that  we  can  make  against  the 
Roman  Church  bears  more  overwhelmingly  against  the 
spirit  and  practice  of  American  slavery,  for  suppressing 
the  Bible,  for  shackling  the  rights  of  conscience,  for 
persecuting  ministers  of  the  gospel  who  attempt  to 
preach  God's  word,  for  mobbing  John  G.  Fee,  for  mur 
dering  Charles  T.  Torrey,  for  inflicting  upon  the.  brave 
and  good  men  who  have  attempted  to  preach  through 
the  South  the  words  of  Jesus,  the  same  ruffian-like  per 
secution  with  which  Romanism,  at  some  eras  of  the 
world's  history,  has  met  Protestantism.  When  a  man 
comes  here  prating  about  the  evils  of  Romanism,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  defends  and  strives  to  perpetuate 
a  system  in  the  South  which  is  even  worse  in  its  rela 
tion  to  religion,  he  is,  to  say  the  least,  capping  the 
climax  of  inconsistency  and  absurdity. 

My  opponent  seems  to  think  that  I  have  slandered 
the  people  of  the  South  in  speaking  of  them  as  going 
to  the  communion  table  while  their  negroes  are  chained 
to  carts.  Why,  gentlemen,  it  is  but  a  short  time  since 


296  NEGATIVE,    V. 

I  heard  the  story  of  such  a  transaction  related  in  the 
city  of  Syracuse,  by  a  Presbyterian  deacon  who  had 
been  to  Florida  to  work  for  a  year  or  two,  and  had  been 
driven  out  on  account  of  his  expression  of  anti-slavery 
sentiments.  He  related  that  on*  day,  going  home  from 
Presbyterian  church,  accompanied  by  a  member  who 
had  just  partaken  with  him  at  the  communion-table,  he 
looked  over  the  garden-fence  of  that  member  as  he  ap 
proached  his  house,  and  saw  one  of  his  slaves  chained 
to  the  cart-wheel.  Being  asked  the  reason,  this  church 
member  answered,  that  when  he  went  to  meeting  he 
dare  not  leave  this  slave  unless  he  were  chained  up,  for 
fear  that  he  would  commit  some  depredation.  So,  here 
was  your  Florida  saint  sitting  at  the  communion-table 
while  his  negro  was  chained  to  the  cart-wheel  at  home  ! 
Shall  I  not  say  that  I  have  done  no  wrong  to  the  spirit 
of  that  religion  which  sanctions  the  holding  of  slaves  ? 
We  have  been  told  (and  I  suppose  the  gentleman 
expected  it  would  frighten  us)  that,  because  of  the  grow 
ing  Anti-Slavery  spirit  of  the  North,  our  Northern 
watering-places  are  failing  to  receive,  of  late  years,  the 
same  amount  of  Southern  patronage  that  they  once 
enjoyed ;  and  that  our  great  commercial  cities  are  fast 
losing  the  custom  of  Southern  buyers.  He  shakes  his 
poor,  lean  Southern  purse  at  us  —  as  if  we  cared  for 
your  pimps  that  frequent  Northern  watering-places,  as 
if  we  were  so  extremely  anxious  for  their  money  that, 
to  secure  it,  we  would  trample  on  the  rights  of  man 
and  crush  four  millions  of  slaves  !  Why,  gentlemen, 
if  the  heart  of  the  North  should  bo  enlarged  with 
humanity  sufficient  to  procure  the  liberation  of  the 
slave,  what  though  our  haunts  of  fashion,  with  their 


BY   ABRAM   PRYNE.  297 

varied  wickedness  be  all  desolate?  what  though  our 
sales  of  merchandize  be  somewhat  lessened  ?  But  I 
take  the  liberty  of  saying  that  the  statistics  to  which 
the  gentleman  has  referred  in  regard  to  this  matter  are 
entirely  untrue.  Our  -Northern  watering-places  and 
our  Northern  commercial  cities  are  frequented  by  the 
South  as  much  now  as  ever  before.  The  number  of 
Southern  gentlemen  in  Philadelphia  to-night,  buying 
goods,  proves  it.  And  they  will  undoubtedly  continue 
to  frequent  the  North.  So  far  as  this  argument  is 
concerned,  the  crack  of  the  cotton-god's  whip  will  not, 
I  take  it,  have  any  great  effect  in  suppressing  the 
humanity  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  or  in  crushing 
the  free  spirit  of  the  whole  North. 

As  another  reason  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  I 
refer  to  its  spirit  as  exhibited  in  the  history  of  Kansas. 
The  efforts  of  the  South  to  push  slavery  into  that  ter 
ritory  and  spread  it  upon  that  virgin  soil,  are  so  horrid 
a  development  of  its  spirit  of  ruffianism,  that  even 
were  there  no  other  exhibition  of  it,  it  is  time  that  we 
should  exert  ourselves  to  abolish  slavery. 

My  opponent  has,  in  the  course  of  his  speeches, 
sneered  at  the  Maine  Law  spirit  of  the  North.  That 
he  should  do  so,  is  not  surprising ;  for  how,  in  the 
name  of  reason,  can  you  carry  out  your  system  of  ruf 
fianism  in  Kansas  without  whisky  ?  How  can  you  ac 
complish  the  purposes  and  aims  of  the  slave  power, 
without  its  terrible  ally,  the  rum  power?  These  two 
monster  spirits  of  wickedness  have  stood  hand  in  hand 
and  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  this  whole  controversy. 
Slavery  ought  to  be  abolished,  if  for  no  other 


298  NEGATIVE,     V. 

reason,  because  it  affiliates  with  the  terrible  vice  of 
drunkenness. 

A  member  of  Congress  from  my  own  State  was  once 
asked  how  it  was  that  a  certain  great  statesman  (whom 
I  will  not  mention  because  of  respect  for  the  name  he 
once  bore)  was  brought  down  into  the  position  that  he 
took  with  regard  to  the  South  in  one  of  the  great 
issues  on  the  slavery  question.  The  answer  which  this 
gentleman  gave  was,  that  just  at  that  time  the  saloons 
about  the  capitol  were  filled  with  the  most  villanously 
drugged  brandy  that  ever  he  knew  to  be  there ;  arid 
although  he  did  not  think  that  this  great  statesman 
drank  any  more  than  had  been  his  habit  previously, 
yet  the  liquor  was  so  bad  that  it  upset  his  brain,  and 
he  went  in  for  the  whole  demands  of  slavery,  the  overturn 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  all. 

And  let  me  tell  you  an  incident  in  regard  to  the  pas 
sage  of  the  Nebraska  bill  —  a  story  of  shame  that 
should  tinge  the  cheek  of  every  American  of  spirit. 
On  the  night  when  that  iniquitous  measure  was  con 
summated,  the  Governor-General  of  Canada  sat  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  until  midnight,  beside  Ger- 
rit  Smith,  (who,  as  the  newspapers  said,  ran  home  and 
did  not  vote,  but  who,  in  truth,  was  there  and  did  vote.) 
In  the  midst  of  that  shameful  scene  —  while  half  the 
members  were  too  drunk  to  stand  up  to  vote,  and  the 
others  too  drunk  to  hold  them  up  —  while  the  click  of 
pistol  locks  was  heard  at  times,  and  the  gleam  of  bowie 
knives  gave  occasional  threatenings  of  a  fight — during 
the  enacting  of  this  mortifying  spectacle,  brought  on 
by  the  spirit  of  slavery  controlling  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  the  Governor-General  turned  to  Mr. 


BY   ABRAM    PRYNE.  299 

Smith  and  said :  "  I  have  witnessed  almost  as  disgrace 
ful  scenes  as  this  in  the  British  House  of  Commons." 
Thus  did  the  courtly  foreigner  seek  to  soften  the  shame 
which  tinged  the  face  of  Mr.  Smith,  in  view  of  his 
country's  disgrace,  by  a  half  apology  for  the  drunken 
row.  And  thus  the  spirit  of  rum  and  slavery,  until 
they  be  conquered,  will  over  and  over  again  bring  us 
into  this  position  of  contempt  before  the  civilized 
world. 

Again :  slavery  ought  to  be  abolished,  because  it 
seeks  to  destroy  the  freedom  of  the  ballot-box.  The 
men  in  Kansas  who  wanted  to  vote  like  freemen,  for  a 
Constitution  of  their  own,  were  driven  back  by  slavery's 
bristling  bayonets  in  drunken  hands ;  and  that  too,  I 
am  afraid,  with  the  spirit  of  the  National  Administra 
tion,  under  the  control  of  the  slave-power,  sustaining 
their  ruffianism.  Our  right  of  free  suffrage  at  the 
ballot-box,  the  very  core  and  essence  of  all  our  rights, 
is  either  to  be  encroached  upon  more  and  more  until  it 
be  finally  and  fatally  lost,  or  we  must  abolish  American 
slavery. 

And  let  me  tell  you,  freedom  in  Kansas  was  secured 
by  a  firm  resistance  to  this  spirit  of  slavery.  Do  you 
think  it  was  Congressional  speeches  that  secured  free 
dom  in  Kansas?  You  are  greatly  mistaken;  it  was 
glorious  old  John  Brown  with  his  armed  men.  The 
Demon  of  slavery  was  beaten  back,  because  he  and 
his  brave  band  were  on  the  ground  to  let  her  minions 
know  that  they  had  caught  the  spirit  of  '76,  and  were 
ready  to  fight  for  freedom. 

While  on  this  subject,  excuse  a  little  seeming  egotism. 
I  am  proud  to  say  that  before  John  Brown  went  to 


300  NEGATIVE,   V. 

Kansas,  I  had  the  privilege,  in  an  Anti- Slavery  Con 
vention  at  Syracuse,  of  moving  a  resolution  to  buy 
rifles  for  his  "  boys."  I  made  a  speech  in  favor  of  the 
resolution,  and  though  it  did  not  escape  opposition,  it 
was  carried  through  enthusiastically ;  the  collection 
was  taken  up,  and  John  Brown  and  his  "boys"  were 
assisted  to  buy  rifles. 

It  is  the  same  spirit  of  firm  opposition  to  the  ini 
quities  of  American  slavery  —  even  to  the  extent  of 
lighting  for  freedom  if  necessary — that  is  indispensable 
to  save  the  liberties  of  our  country. 

Southern  religion  has  been  presented  to  us  as  the 
highest  type  of  Christianity.  Let  me  bring  to  your 
mind  a  picture,  unfortunately  not  a  vision  of  the  ima 
gination.  On  the  broad  lagoon  of  some  African  river 
are  seen  the  masts  of  the  slaver,  towering  above  the 
tropical  vegetation : 

Hark!  from  the  ship's  dark  bosom, 

The  very  sounds  of  hell ! 
The  ringing  clank  of  iron — 

The  maniac's  short  sharp  yell ! 
The  hoarse,  low  curse,  throat-stifled — 

The  infant's  starving  moan — 
The  horror  of  a  breaking  heart 

Poured  through  a  mother's  groan ! 

Now,  see  that  slaver  as  she  approaches  her  Southern 
port,  the  tall  church  spires  of  which  rise  in  the  dis 
tance.  Now,  look  into  one  of  those  churches.  Re 
member  that  its  leading  members  are  the  owners  of 
this  vessel ;  remember  that  they  provide  the  market 
for  the  negroes  she  has  stolen ;  and  buy  the  human 
chattels  which  she  brings  across  the  water ;  remember 


BY    ABEAM    PRYNE.  301 

all  this,  and  then  tell  me  whether,  in  the  view  of  God's 
clear-eyed  justice,  the  slave  ship  in  the  lagoon,  with 
its  shrieking  victims  smothering  in  the  hold,  is  not  as 
worthy  the  name  of  church  as  this  dome-capped  edifice, 
where,  in  profanation  of  religion's  name,  these  traf 
fickers  in  immortal  souls  assemble. 

Christ  regards  all  his  children  alike.  God,  the 
Father  of  us  all,  is  acceptably  worshipped  by  fidelity 
to  the  great  law  of  human  brotherhood.  Can  a  man 
love  Christ,  and  at  the  same  time  treat  as  a  brute  one 
of  those  precious  immortals  for  whom  Christ  died  ? 

Suppose  there  is  a  man,  who  calls  himself  my  friend, 
who,  on  every  occasion,  in  every  place,  is  profuse  in 
expressions  of  friendship  and  of  praise.  Suppose  that 
to-night,  while  I  am  far  from  my  home,  my  little  flaxen- 
haired  boy  of  four  summers  has  wandered  out  into  the 
darkness,  and  as  he  grows  bewildered  and  weary,  a 
storm  comes  on,  the  lightnings  flash  athwart  the  hea 
vens,  and  the  clouds  pour  out  their  rain.  As  he  wan 
ders  on,  the  storm  beating  upon  his  defenceless  head 
he  sinks  helpless  into  the  mire,  and  must  soon  perish. 
Just  at  this  moment,  my  pretended  friend  comes  riding 
along,  he  who  has  praised  me  often  and  often,  and  been 
lavish  in  professions  of  love.  He  sees  my  poor,  help 
less  child,  and  what  does  he  do  ?  Of  course,  he  will 
get  down  and  take  him  into  the  warm,  snug  carriage. 
No !  he  drives  ruthlessly  over  him !  Suppose  that 
wretch  shall  come  to  me  to-morrow,  renewing  his  false 
professions  and  claiming  still  to  be  my  warmest  friend 
—what  shall  I  say  to  him  ?  Shall  I  not  answer,  "No  ! 
quit  my  sight,  you  heartless  hypocrite !  Had  you 
26 


302  NEGATIVE,    V. 

loved  me,  you  would  have  loved  my  child,  and  tenderly 
cared  for  him  when  in  distress." 

Now  let  me  make  the  application.  God  is  the  father 
of  us  all ;  and  his  poor  children,  the  stricken,  heart 
broken  slaves,  are  groping  and  struggling  in  search  of 
freedom ;  the  storms  of  oppression  are  beating  upon 
them :  and  yet  they  are  trodden  down  and  over  ridden 
by  the  Christians  of  the  South,  who  are  at  the  same 
time  shouting  the  praises  of  God,  claiming  to  love  him 
devoutly  and  to  be  his  sincerest  worshippers.  Will  not 
God,  as  their  praises  rise  up  to  him  from  hollow  hearts, 
answer,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  failed  to  do  it  unto  the 
least  of  these,  my  poor  little  ones  on  earth,  the  door 
of  Heaven's  kingdom  is  closed  against  you.  Your 
praise  is  a  mockery  ;  your  professed  devotion  a  sham. 
I  scorn  your  oblations  and  your  fastings.  An  accept 
able  fast  is  *  to  undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the 
oppressed  go  free,  and  to  break  every  yoke.' ' 

Yet  we  are  told  that  clergymen  at  the  North  who 
plead  for  the  rights  of  the  slave,  are  derelict  in  their 
duty — false  to  the  holy  religion  they  profess.  What ! 
are  only  they  true  ministers  of  God's  gospel  who  can 
lend  the  sanction  of  His  word  to  the  barbarities  of 
slavery  ? 

Just  God ! — and  these  are  they 

Who  minister  at  Thine  altar,  God  of  Right ! 
Men  who  their  hands  with  prayer  and  blessing  lay 

On  Israel's  ark  of  light ! 

What !  preach — and  kidnap  men  ? 

Give  thanks — and  rob  Thine  own  afflicted  poor? 
Talk  of  Thy  glorious  liberty — and  then 

Bolt  hard  the  captive's  door  ? 


BY   A  BEAM    PRYNE.  303 

What!  servants  of  thine  own 

Merciful  Son,  who  came  to  seek  and  save 
The  homeless  and  the  outcast — fettering  down 

The  tasked  and  plundered  slave ! 

Pilate  and  Herod,  friends  ! 

Chief  priests  and  rulers,  as  of  old,  combine  1 
Just  God  and  holy !  is  that  church  which  lends 

Strength  to  the  spoiler,  Thine  ? 

Paid  hypocrites !  who  turn 

Judgment  aside,  and  rob  the  Holy  Book 
Of  those  high  words  of  truth  which  search  and  burn 

In  warning  and  rebuke. 

And  now,  my  friends,  my  argument  is  done.  With 
out  fear  of  being  contradicted  by  the  warmest  friend 
of  the  slave,  I  say,  I  have  done  my  duty.  According 
to  my  own  poor  ability,  and  with  whatever  strength 
God  has  given  me,  I  have  done  m'y  duty  to  the  four 
millions  .of  stricken  ones  whose  wail  comes  to  us  on  the 
Southern  breeze — to  the  voiceless  maidens,  sold  in 
Southern  shambles  —  to  the  strong-armed  men,  ren 
dered  mute  by  chains.  Could  all  the  slave  population 
of  the  South  hear  me  to-night,  I  would  venture  to 
stand  before  them  and  say  that  at  least  to  them,  my 
poor,  crushed  and  outraged  brethren,  I  have,  in  this 
debate,  whatever  may  have  been  my  faults,  done  my 
duty  as  a  brother  man. 

I  have  also,  as  well  as  my  humble  powers  enabled 
me,  done  my  duty  to  the  cause  of  freedom.  I  have 
given  up  my  heart  to  her  glorious  inspiration,  and  put 
all  my  energies  in  accord  with  her  noblest  instincts 
and  loftiest  aims.  If  I  have  failed  of  the  success  that 
might  have  been  wished,  the  cause  must  be  found  in 


304  NEGATIVE,    V. 

my  own  lack  of  power.  But,  gentlemen,  I  have  been 
successful.  I  stand  here,  with  all  you  men  of  heart 
and  intelligence  to  sustain  me,  when  I  affirm  that,  in 
the  argument  of  this  debate  I  have  been  most  eminently 
successful. 

I  have  done  my  duty ;  will  you  do  yours  ?  Will 
you  raise  the  standard  of  humanity  in  this  broad  land  ? 
Will  you  be  true  to  the  aims  and  purposes  of  freedom  ? 
Will  you  give  up  your  heart  to  the  moving  and  growing 
impulses  which  are  urging  the  world  up  to  higher  light 
and  broader  truth,  and  nobler  brotherhood  ?  Will  you, 
taking  the  sentiments  I  have  uttered,  and  the  princi 
ples  I  have  advocated,  weave  them  into  your  lives,  and 
work  them  out  in  your  relation  to  the  politics  of  the 
country  ?  We  need  a  holier  politics,  as  well  as  a  holier 
religion  —  a  higher  type  of  statesmanship,  a  nobler 
motive  of  political  union,  the  recognition  of  govern 
ment  as  coming  from  God,  and  deriving  all  its 'sanctity 
from  the  Divine  command.  Let  us  engage  in  the  per 
formance  of  civil  duties  as  men  and  Christians;  and 
then,  i^en  we  shall  appreciate  the  glory  and  dignity 
of  true  human  government,  recognizing  God  as  its 
author,  and  His  principles  as  the  guiding  light  in 
administering  the  affairs  of  a  nation,  we  shall  cleanse 
our  land  from  the  foul  wrong  of  American  slavery,  so 
that  we  shall  no  longer  be  the  scorn  of  the  civilized 
world.  Then  it  will  be  no  longer  true  that 

"  While  every  flap  of  England's  flag 
Proclaims  that  all  around  are  free, 
From  farthest  Ind  to  each  blue  crag, 
That  beetles  o'er  the  Western  sea;" 


BY    ABRAM    PRYNE.  305 

our  own  America,  with  her  boasted  republicanism,  and 
liberty,  and  religion,  is  a  land  where  four  millions  of 
slaves  sigh  for  freedom.  And  they  will  obtain  their 
freedom  as  they  ought  to  have  it.  Then,  indeed,  may 
we  boast  of  the  glory  of  our  land.  Then  will  the 
heart  of  humanity  look  upwards.  Then  will  the  eye 
of  God  light  up  with  a  more  kindly  smile  as  he  looks 
down  upon  us.  Then  will  the  world  be  blessed,  not 
only  by  the  example  of  the  fathers,  but  by  the  glorious 
deeds  of  the  sons  of  the  glorious  fathers  who  achieved 
the  American  Revolution. 

"  So  let  it  be !     In  God's  own  might, 
We  gird  us  for  the  coming  fight, 
And,  strong  in  Him  whose  cause  is  ours, 
In  conflict  with  unholy  powers, 
We  grasp  the  weapons  He  has  given  — 
The  light,  and  truth,  and  love  of  heaven  I" 


THE    END. 


26* 


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